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PolitiFact | Did Ukraine start its war with Russia, as President Donald Trump said? No, Russia invaded

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces launched an invasion on Ukraine, a country that the night before was at peace. Putin called it a "special military operation" and he premised the attack on false claims about Ukraine. As people were sleeping, Russian troops and tanks rolled into Ukraine and missiles poured down in what U.S. military analysts called the largest military operation in Europe since World War II.

The attack followed weeks of Russian maneuvers that included staging a large-scale military exercise along Russia's border with Ukraine that the U.S. estimated to include 190,000 Russian troops.

We rate the statement Pants on Fire!

Fact check: No, Zelenskyy doesn’t have 4% approval as Trump claims; it’s over 50%

In reality, respected polls in Ukraine show that Zelenskyy has over 50% approval among Ukrainians. The most recent, published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in early February, showed that 57% of respondents said they trusted Zelenskyy.

Fact Check: Does Zelensky Have a 4% Approval Rating?

There is no credible poll in Ukraine that shows Zelensky with an approval rating in the single digits. Surveys consistently show him in the 50-60 percent approval range, down from the 75-90 percent marks he was getting earlier in the war.

February's KIIS poll showed 57 percent of Ukrainians trust Zelensky, which is a higher level of support than President Trump has received in recent polls from Gallup (48 percent) and YouGov (47 percent).

Chart: Trump’s Claim That Zelensky Has 4% Support Is Far Off | Statista

Data released by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) shows that while Zelensky's support base has decreased since early 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it is still far higher than Trump's claim of four percent. In a poll conducted between February 4-9, 57 percent of adults said they trusted Zelensky, while 37 percent of respondents said that they do not and six percent said it was hard to say.

Fact Check: Did JD Vance Say US ‘Military Action’ Available Against Russia?

True.

JD Vance did say that "military tools of leverage" could be used if Moscow did not cooperate with the terms of a negotiation that ended fighting between Russia and Ukraine. He did rule out U.S. deployment, saying "the president is very clear that whenever he walks into negotiation, everything is on the table."

While Vance claimed his words were "twisted," a full transcript shows he did not rule out military action.

Fact Check: Trump Says Russia Has Lost 1.5 Million Troops In Ukraine War

There are no estimates that 1.5 million Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine. Recent analyses suggest manpower losses of around 780,000 as of early January 2025. Ukrainian government estimates from February 2025 claim 850,000 Russian troop losses. While the Ukrainian government is thought to have overcounted Russian losses and undercounted its own, some of its recent assessments have been similar to those by government and expert analyses outside of Kyiv.

An independent analyst told Newsweek that Trump's estimate of Russian losses had "no basis in reality."

Trump’s ‘make peace or die’ message to Putin is deepfake – yet it fooled Russians

On Jan. 27, Andrey Isayev, a member of Russia's State Duma (the lower house of parliament), accused U.S. President Donald Trump of trying to "rudely" force Russian President Vladimir Putin to start peace negotiations with Ukraine. [...]

"Trump threatened our president rather rudely, it must be said, pressuring to start the negotiations and reminding of Qaddafi's fate."

The claim is false.