Trump justifies agreement with Putin on Ukraine by referring to Russian military history

Trump also complained about US spending on supporting Ukraine while criticising President Joe Biden's stance: “Biden says 'We're not going to leave until we win' – what happens if they win?”

Trump said the US would be “stuck” in the Ukraine war “if I'm not president,” adding: “I'm going to get it done. I'm going to negotiate it, and I'm going to get out. We have to get out.”

Russia continues to apply pressure on exhausted Ukraine and will soon have the world's second-largest army, with 1.5 million active soldiers, thanks to a recent decree by President Vladimir Putin.

However, analysts doubt that Russia will be able to maintain its operations in Ukraine at the same pace beyond 2025. They have long pointed out that the full-scale invasion in 2022 would expose many weaknesses of the Russian military institutions.

Trump did not say in his speech how and what he would negotiate in detail, but his running mate JD Vance recently outlined a plan that includes significant concessions to Putin.

Vance, who has said in the past that he “doesn't really care” what happens to Ukraine, said the plan would include freezing the conflict and creating a “demilitarized zone” along the current front line, as well as banning Ukraine from joining NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the plan in an interview with the New Yorker, saying: “This approach would implicitly convey to the world the following rule: I came, I conquered, now it's mine.”

On Tuesday, Trump also made several false claims about U.S. military funding for Ukraine, saying, “We gave them almost $300 billion.”

As of early September, the United States had provided Ukraine with nearly $56 billion in direct military aid, according to the U.S. State Department. Total aid to Ukraine and U.S. activities related to the war amounted to $175 billion in May, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump also said that Europe had given Ukraine only a “very small fraction” of that. As of September, Europe had given Ukraine a total of about $126 billion in military and other aid.

Trump also claimed that there was no war in Ukraine during his term in office: “Russia never invaded Ukraine.”

He added: “For four years they didn't do that. When I left, they just went in.”

The remarks ignore the fact that Russia's annexation of Crimea and the proxy war in eastern Ukraine have been going on since 2014, including during Trump's term in office.