Donald Trump claims Kyiv could have fallen in one day

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Donald Trump offered his assessment of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine, suggesting the conflict could have concluded within a single day.

Trump attributed the failure of the Russian blitzkrieg not to Ukrainian resistance, but to the decisions of an unnamed, “very stupid” Russian general and heavy rainfall. He claimed that if 1,000 Russian tanks had remained on concrete highways and traveled at maximum speeds of approximately 48 miles per hour, they could have reached the center of Kyiv in roughly four hours.

According to Trump, the unnamed commander chose to divert vehicles into farmland rather than staying on the highway, causing them to become stuck in mud described as being like “live sand.” Trump provided no specific evidence for these claims.