The president-elect was outlining his plan for his second administration on Tuesday when he decided to express some sympathy with the Russian dictator almost three years after Putin began the bloody war.
Trump told journalists: “A big part of the problem was Russia, for many many years, long before Putin said, ‘You could never have Nato involved in Ukraine,’ no, like that’s been written in stone.
“Somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘No they should be allowed to join Nato’.
“Well, then Russia has someone right on their doorstep. I could understand their feelings about that.
“But there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation and when I heard the way that Biden was negotiating, I said, ‘You’re going to end up in a war,’ and it turned out to be a very bad war.
“It could escalate, that war could escalate to be much worse than it is right now.”
He added: “I believe they had a deal and then Biden broke it.”
Trump suggested that “deal” would have been “satisfactory” to Ukraine and everyone else.
Putin made a similar claim in December, telling reporters: “I know that the current President Biden spoke about this, it is no secret, back in 2021.
“He proposed exactly this to me – to delay Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 10-15 years, because it is not ready yet.”
However, the Russian president did not say Biden then went back on the deal.
Instead, he added: “For us, it makes no difference – today, tomorrow or in 10 years’ time.”
It’s widely thought in the west that Putin invaded Ukraine in a land grab. Moscow has denied such a claim, but continues pushing its troops forward to seize more territories.
Trump has vowed to end the Ukraine war on his first day in office, although he has not explained how – sparking fears that he might push Kyiv to cede occupied territory to Moscow just to achieve peace.
The president-elect said he wants to hold talks with Putin sooner rather than later, telling journalists: “I hope long before six months.”
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied claims Putin was planning on meeting with Trump – or German chancellor Olaf Scholz – were in progress on January 5.
