Senate minority leader slams Trump over 'siding' with Putin

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused President Donald Trump on Monday of "siding" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"Today, on this third anniversary of Putin’s war (against Ukraine), Donald Trump is turning his back on the values that America stands for, of democracy, of security, and of liberty.

"Instead of standing up to Putin, Donald Trump is siding with him and against our own allies," Schumer told the Senate floor.

Marking the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine, he said the US has "been clear" on where it stands.

"We have stood on the side of democracy, the inviolability of borders, and the freedom of nations and against Vladimir Putin," he said, claiming that Trump is "parroting" Russian misinformation and propaganda instead of condemning Putin’s "lies."

Trump earlier this month called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy "a dictator without elections" and blamed him for starting the war with Russia.

Separately, former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the “human catastrophe rests solely on Vladimir Putin."

"Refusing to acknowledge Russia as the undeniable and unprovoked aggressor is more than an unseemly moral equivalency — it reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage," McConnell said in a statement marking the three-year anniversary of the war.