The US president once again criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing the hostilities to escalate

The Ukraine conflict could have escalated into World War III under the previous US administration, President Donald Trump has claimed.

He has frequently argued that global tensions peaked when relations between Moscow and Washington hit their lowest point under his predecessor, Joe Biden. Since returning to office in January, Trump has reestablished US diplomatic ties with Russia, which had been suspended since the conflict's escalation in 2022.

Speaking to journalists at the White House on Friday, Trump claimed that, if not for his administration's actions, the Ukraine conflict "would have ended up being a world war."

"We've brought it down a long way, but when I first came in, I thought, 'Wow, this thing is really bad,'" Trump added. "Now the only question is, when is it going to be settled? And it could be very soon," he said.

The president again labeled the conflict "Biden's war" and criticized what he described as the previous administration's vast military support for Kiev. "Through Biden and his people, we're probably in for $350 billion," he said.

Trump has previously indicated that he intends to recoup those funds through a minerals deal with Kiev, signed earlier this year. However, analysts note that much of Ukraine's mineral wealth is concentrated in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, territories that voted to join Russia in 2022.

Moscow has framed the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war and has long denounced Western military aid to Kiev. The Kremlin maintains that NATO's eastward expansion and Ukraine's ambitions to join the alliance are key drivers of the hostilities. Since taking office, Trump has reduced US arms shipments to Ukraine, with his administration - including Secretary of State Marco Rubio - openly characterizing the conflict as a proxy war against Russia.

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