Trump says excluding Russia from G8 may have contributed to Ukraine war

U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that Russia’s removal from what was formerly the G8 may have contributed to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Speaking in an interview with Axios, Trump referred to past summits and argued that maintaining Russia’s membership could have helped prevent the current conflict.

“I'll tell you with the G7, I've seen G7s. I've been to a lot of G7s, and it used to be G8s. They should have kept the G8. You probably wouldn't have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did, but Obama didn't want Putin there. I guess one or two others also. But they wanted Putin out. It used to be the G8. It would've been much better if they kept that that way,” Trump said.

Russia was suspended from the G8 in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea, after which the group continued as the G7.

By Sabina Mammadli