Former US president Donald Trump has backtracked on his comments calling Vladimir Putin a 'genius' and described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a 'holocaust'.
It is a drastic departure from his previous comments where he said the Russian president had been 'very savvy' and made a 'genius' move by declaring two regions of Ukraine to be independent and sending in the troops.
Trump made his earlier comments on February 23, the day before Putin sent his invasion force into the rest of Ukraine and ignited a conflict which has forced over a million civilians to flee Ukraine, The Guardian reports.
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Trump had praised Putin for making a 'smart move' and described the Russian troops moving in as 'the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen'.
Now, according to Business Insider, Trump has changed his position and condemned Putin's invasion as a 'holocaust' and called for an end to the fighting.
In an interview with Fox News's Maria Bartiromo, he said Russia has 'to stop killing these people' and suggested a deal could be struck with Putin to end the fighting.
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He said: 'We're watching a holocaust.
'We're watching something that I've never seen before, the way that they're going to go in — they're blowing up buildings with children, with women, with professionals, with people — think of just people.'
'They're blowing up indiscriminately, they're just shooting massive missiles and rockets into these buildings and everybody is dying.'
The comments represent a significant shift in the former US president's position on Russian aggression, though Trump has still avoided directly criticising Putin.
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He has instead blamed the Biden administration for the crisis, claiming Russia 'don't respect the United States' and attacking Biden for 'not doing anything about it' despite the large package of sanctions imposed upon Putin and his oligarchs which are causing significant economic damage to Russia.
Trump had previously said the Russian invasion of Ukraine 'would never have happened' if he had been in office, claiming it was 'not even thinkable' that Putin would have tried something while he was president.
An investigation by The Guardian reported last year that leaked Kremlin documents appeared to show Putin gave an order to support the 'mentally unstable' Trump's bid for the presidency in 2016 in the hopes of causing 'social turmoil' in the US.
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information.
Topics: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Ukraine