Trump's refusal to condemn Putin is ‘demoralising', says Shapps

Telegraph

17-04-2025

Donald Trump's refusal to blame Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine is 'completely demoralising' for democratic nations, Grant Shapps has said.
The former defence secretary accused the US president of 'weasel' words over his failure to condemn the Russian ballistic missile strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, which killed at least 34 civilians and injured more than 100.
Mr Trump blamed Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, and Joe Biden for starting the long-running war despite the images of lifeless bodies, including children, filmed on the streets alongside ruined buildings and burning cars on Palm Sunday.
'You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,' Mr Trump said at the White House on Monday.
He said the Russian attack was 'terrible' but added that he had been told it was a 'mistake'.
In what could signal a return to politics for Mr Shapps, the former Conservative high-flyer went further than Sir Keir Starmer in his criticism of the US president.
The leader of Mr Shapps' party, Kemi Badenoch, has remained entirely silent on the strike, the deadliest by Russian forces this year.
'I feel disgusted. The idea that the leader of the free world cannot tell the difference between the dictator who locks up and murders his opponents and invades innocent democratic countries and the country itself that has been invaded,' Mr Shapps told the One Decision podcast.
Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, five years before Mr Zelensky became president. Putin then launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Mr Trump went on to say: ' Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody is to blame.'
Of Mr Trump's comments, Mr Shapps added: 'This lack of moral clarity is completely demoralising for the rest of the democratic world…Yeah, I mean, it's a sort of weasel language. We used to hear it from the IRA.'
Mr Shapps, who held five Cabinet positions, suggested Mr Trump's promise to end Russia's war against Ukraine was an 'appeasement' of Putin, and accused him of making a Chinese invasion of Taiwan more likely.
He said: 'Surely you must understand that if you let one dictator get away with it, what do you think will happen when another dictator walks into a neighbouring state or one just over the water and takes it over?'
'The one thing I believe about Trump is he doesn't want China to walk into Taiwan… you're making the one thing you don't want far more likely,' he added.