Biden slams Ukraine’s Zelenskyy for ignoring invasion warnings

President of the United States, Joe Biden, has for the first time lambasted President Volodymir Zelenskyy of Ukraine for ignoring repeated warnings of Russia’s plans to invade the country until it happened on February 24.

According to local American media reports, President Biden is disappointed that Ukrainian President Zelenskiy failed to act on the privileged information volunteered from the White House about Russian war plans.

“I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating, but I knew, and we had data to sustain, he was going in off the border. There was no doubt. And Zelenskiy didn’t want to hear it, nor did a lot of people,” Biden said Friday during a political fundraiser in Los Angeles.

The president acknowledged that the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin launching a full-scale invasion may have seemed far-fetched, saying, “I understand why they didn’t want to hear it.”

Biden accused Putin of “trying to obliterate the culture, not just the nation, but the culture” of Ukraine and said the Russian leader sees the capital of Kyiv as “the seat of mother Russia.”

Russia’s military failed to capture Kyiv but has made advances in Ukraine’s south and east, where Putin hopes to capture all of the Donbas region. Ukraine’s military has mounted counterattacks outside the city of Kharkiv in the north and in the region around the occupied city of Kherson in the south.

The president spoke at the Los Angeles home of investor Andrew Hauptman at an event that was expected to raise about $2.5 million for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, according to a party official. The event was co-hosted by Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg. 

The president is speaking at a second fund-raising event later Friday at the home of billionaire producer and investor Haim Saban that’s also expected to net about $2.5 million for the Democratic Party. Biden is in Los Angeles to host the Summit of the Americas.