Fiona Hill Blames Trump for Putin’s Ukraine Invasion — Political Divisions Were ‘a Sign of Weakness’

On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former National Security Council Senior Director Fiona Hill insisted former President Donald Trump, despite being out of office for more than a year, played a role in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

Hill argued that Trump’s request for a “personal favor” set the wheels in motion for the invasion.

“[I] think there’s just the one point that sums everything up that you yourself touched on is that President Trump at a pretty critical period, withheld military assistance to Ukraine that was desperate for it at that particular junction, basically to get Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a personal favor,” Hill said.

She insisted that the request, which would later play a role in Trump’s first impeachment, was a signal of weakness to Putin.

“Well, that sends a message to Putin that Ukraine is a plaything for him, and for himself as well, and for the United States,” she added. And that nobody’s really serious about protecting Ukraine. And that was ultimately a sign of weakness. It’s our political divisions, our parties are infighting, which was on full display there, that Putin I think is quite shocked now that we’ve got some collective action together.”

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