US President Donald Trump said the ongoing war between Moscow and Kyiv likely would likely have been averted if Russia had remained a member of the then-Group of Eight (G8).
“You probably wouldn't have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did,” Trump told Axios in an interview aired Friday, referring to the decision to expel Moscow, making the group the G7.
He asserted that the forum "would have been much better" had it maintained its original structure.
Trump attributed the shift to former President Barack Obama, claiming he did not want his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin involved.
Russia was expelled from the group in 2014 following its illegal annexation of Crimea.
Trump has previously claimed on multiple occasions that if he had been president in 2022, rather than Joe Biden, the Ukraine war would never had happened.
He has also called for Russia to be restored to the G7 grouping.
The Ukraine war is now in its fifth year.
Trump this week attended the 52nd G7 Summit, the annual summit of the G7, held in Evian-les-Bains, France.
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