The President of the United States, Donald Trump, claims that the main reason why Russia did not manage to take control of Kiev in the first 24 hours of the invasion of Ukraine was the incompetence of its military commanders.
Trump specifically referred to a Russian general whose name he did not reveal, whom he described as "an idiot, I don't know who he is, and he might not be alive anymore." According to his account, this commander, instead of directing his column of tanks towards Kiev via a "nice concrete highway," chose to "turn right and go into the farms."
According to the version of the U.S. president, until that detour, the Russian force could have reached the Ukrainian capital "with no one to stop them." Trump emphasized that the conflict "could have ended in a single day," statements he made this Tuesday during a press appearance in the Oval Office of the White House.
Instead, he explained, an entire column of 1,000 tanks "got stuck in the mud, it was like quicksand" because "the night before the worst downpour in ten years had just fallen." In his opinion, the Russian officer made a "terrible, legendary bad decision," which frustrated a lightning victory for the Russian Army on the very day of February 24, 2022.