Kremlin disputes Trump’s remarks on Soviet role in World War II

ISTANBUL

The Kremlin on Thursday “respectfully” disputed US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks on the Soviet Union playing a supportive role during World War II.

On Wednesday, Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that no one should forget how Russia “helped us” win World War II, claiming that the Soviet Union lost almost 60 million people during this period – an exaggerated figure, according to historical accounts, though historians say it lost some 27 million people, far more than any other country. Trump has been known to use hyperbole with figures.

Trump's remarks came a day after he said additional sanctions on Russia are "likely” if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not come to the negotiating table to end its war on Ukraine.

Trump's remarks on World War II are “a topic on which, perhaps, one can disagree with Mr. President (Trump), with all due respect,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow.

“Let's not forget that President Trump has already noted that there is an ocean between America and Europe. And there was an ocean then too,” he said.

“And the war, and the theater of military operations, and the deaths of tens of millions of people took place on a different continent for America,” he added, referring to how US soil was never attacked after Japan’s 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, and the US was never invaded, unlike the Soviet Union, which suffered a brutal Nazi invasion.

Peskov argued that the Soviet Union paid the "main burden" and the "heaviest price" for victory in the fight against fascism during the conflict, which Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

"America did indeed help. It made its significant contributions. But there is one nuance: America always makes money, for America it is always a business," Peskov further said, later drawing parallels to the situation in Ukraine.

Saying that Russia will never forget the assistance given by the US during World War II, Peskov also said that the figures given by Trump on Soviet losses do not correspond to official data from Russian historians or specialists from across the continent.

Peskov added that Trump’s remarks on imposing more sanctions if a deal on Ukraine is not reached are nothing new to Russia, arguing that the US president "often resorted" to sanctions during his first term in office.

Since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, the US has imposed many sanctions on Russia, with packages growing stricter and more far-reaching as the war has lasted longer than most analysts expected.

Peskov also said the Kremlin is closely monitoring Washington’s rhetoric toward Moscow, adding that Russia remains ready for a respectful dialogue between Trump and Putin as happened during the US leader’s first term in office, in 2017-2021.