Former President Donald Trump said Russia's attack on Ukraine would not have happened with him in the White House.
Trump called into Fox News on Wednesday night after Russian forces began invading Ukraine by land, air, and sea.
"This is something that should have never happened; this would not have happened during my administration," Trump told host Laura Ingraham. "In fact, some people are saying, 'Why didn't this take place over the last four years during our administration?' And it didn't for a very good reason, and I'll explain that to you someday, but it wouldn't have taken place, and it wouldn't have taken place right now.
"It's a very sad thing for the world, for the country, and it's certainly sad for a lot of people that are going to be needlessly killed."
The former president pointed to two factors that emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine: Germany under former German Chancellor Angela Merkel becoming reliant on Russian energy; and President Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
"It's a terrible thing the way it started, I don't believe [Putin] wanted to do this initially," Trump told Fox News. "I think he wanted to do something and negotiate it, and it got worse and worse.
"He saw the weakness and, you know, it really started with the weakness in Afghanistan. The way they pulled out of Afghanistan. I really believe that's where he started thinking he could do this."
Trump said the so-called "Russia hoax," which was based on the since-discredited Steele dossier, damaged his good relationships with Putin and Chinese President Xi – two super power leaders he helped keep apart.
"Well, I had a good relationship with both," he told Fox News. "It was hurt by the Russia hoax. …. It was just a made-up hoax and it really hurt our country, but despite the hoax, I had a good relationship and with President Xi of China, other than the fact that I was tariffing and taxing the hell out of him.
"As a young man growing up, I always heard that the worst thing that could happen: drive those two countries together. It really started with [former President Barack] Obama and energy. He drove them together because one needed the energy and the other needed the money. He drove them together.
"I kept them apart — and Biden now, it's a great love fest, and that's a very bad thing, and I think you can probably add Iran into it too."
Trump said Russia's invasion of Ukraine became the latest calamity under Biden.
"As an American I am angry and saddened," he told Fox News. "It all happened because of a rigged election. That includes inflation and that includes millions of people pouring in [at the southern border] on a monthly basis — far more than three million people — and they're coming from 129 different countries. They are destroying our country."
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