- Trump speculated that Putin's invasion of Ukraine is an attempt to bring back the Soviet Union.
- "You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love," he said of the USSR.
- Trump's remarks gloss over the mass repression and deprivation of the Soviet Union. .
Former President Donald Trump speculated that Vladimir Putin in invading Ukraine as a project to rebuild a Soviet empire that had been "full of love."
Trump made the remarks in a radio interview Sunday with Fox News host Jeanne Pirro, when he was asked about the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, where Russia launched an unprovoked invasion in early March.
"He's got a big ego, I know him very well, I understand he'd got rid of a lot of his generals," said Trump of Putin and Russia's military setbacks.
He remarked that the Russian president likely felt "cornered" and would possibly do things that are "unspeakable" to make progress in the invasion, which is making limited progress in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Trump appeared to be raising similar concerns to the US intelligence officials who have spoken of Russia potentially turning to chemical weapons, or expanding its attacks on civilians, in the hope of crushing Ukraine.
Trump said that Putin was likely motivated by a desire to rebuild the Soviet Union, which included Ukraine alongside many other now-independent states in eastern Europe and Asia.
"They wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union," Trump said of Russia's motives in launching the attack. "That's what this is all about to a large extent. And then you say, what's the purpose of this?"
"They had a country. You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love and we're doing it because, you know, somebody wants to make his country larger or he wants to put it back the way it was when actually it didn't work very well," Trump said.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. After its dissolution Ukraine voted to become an independent republic.
During its time as part of the USSR, Ukraine was subjected to political repression and up to 4 million died in a man-made famine created by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.
Though the Soviet Union made some striking scientific advances and spread some prosperity, it brutally punished political dissent and by the early 1990s poverty was widespread. One of Trump's predecessors, Ronald Reagan, famously termed the USSR an "evil empire."
Trump visited Russia before the collapse of the Soviet Union, making a trip to Moscow in 1987 to explore a possible hotel deal.
Trump has long attracted controversy for his remarks about Putin, describing Russia's authoritarian leader as a "genius" and "very savvy" for declaring two regions in east Ukraine independent regions as a pretext to launch the invasion earlier in March.
In recent weeks Trump has condemned Russia's aggression, describing the killing of Ukrainian civilians as a "holocaust" in one interview, yet has not criticised Putin personally.
He has also claimed that were he still president Russia would not have launched the invasion, and in Sunday's interview pointed to his decision to provide enhanced military aid to Ukraine as president.
Critics though, including his former Russia advisor Fiona Hill, have said Trump's hostility to NATO, divisive policies while president, and threat to withhold military aid from Ukraine may have encouraged Putin's aggression.