Donald Trump blamed Russia’s war on Ukraine on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy - an escalation of a pattern of sympathetic rhetoric toward the war’s aggressor, Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes POLITICO.

“He should never have let that war start. The war’s a loser,” Trump said, referring to Zelenskyy, on a podcast with conservative commentator Patrick Bet-David published Thursday. The former president added that President Joe Biden had “instigated that war,” which he has repeatedly maintained “would never have happened” if he had been president.

In the podcast, Trump pushed back on critics saying he was “in the pocket” of Russia, saying he had “ended the biggest job they’d ever done,” referring to sanctions he approved on its Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany. (That pipeline was later shut down to reduce Europe’s consumption of Russian-supplied gas due to the conflict with Russia.)

Later, he added he has “a good relationship with Putin and with Zelenskyy,” who he met with last month during the UN General Assembly. Ahead of that meeting, Trump promised to negotiate a deal that would be “good for both sides.”

In response to a request for comment, Trump’s campaign referred POLITICO to the former president’s speech at the Republican National Convention in July. “Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine,” Trump said. “Under President Trump, Russia took nothing”.