Trump: Russia could have taken Kyiv but for a 'very stupid' general

President Donald Trump said Russia's army could have reached Kyiv within hours in 2022, but a "very stupid" general turned off the highway onto farmland and the tanks got stuck in the mud. Military analysts dispute that account.

President Donald Trump repeated on Oct. 20 his claim that Russia's army could have quickly taken Kyiv in 2022. He said a thousand tanks moving at top speed on a concrete highway would have reached the Ukrainian capital in about three and a half to four hours.

But a "very stupid" general, Trump said, decided to leave the highway and head toward Kyiv across farmland, and after what he called the heaviest rain in 10 years, the tanks got stuck in the mud. Trump did not say which general he meant and offered no evidence of record rainfall.

A push for Kyiv to make a deal

Trump made the remarks while urging Ukraine to reach a peace agreement with Russia. He has made a similar claim before, saying in May that Vladimir Putin's forces would have taken Kyiv in "five hours" had they not got stuck in the mud.

Military analysts dispute the account. They say Russian armor did get bogged down in mud in the early weeks of the invasion, but often after it had struggled to advance along roads. The claim that Kyiv could have been taken within hours, and that a single general's mistake alone prevented it, has not been backed by independent military studies.

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