https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/08/15/putin-says-ukraine-war-would-not-have-started-if-trump-were-president/
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I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities," Putin, speaking in Russian, said according to a translator. "And I said it quite directly back then that it's a big mistake."
"Today, when President Trump saying [sic] that if he was the president back then, there will [sic] be no war, and I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that," he said, per the precise audio translation."