Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, was recently a guest on NPR LA's “AirTalk” podcast to discuss the rising tensions between Ukraine and President Trump.

The president's rhetoric about the Ukraine-Russia war actually mirrors the Russian government's “quite closely,” says Taylor.

“One thing I would call attention to is that President Trump and Russian President Putin had an hour and a half long conversation last week. And since that conversation Trump has repeated multiple Putin talking points about the war; blaming Ukraine for the war taking place, this whole thing about Zelensky not being legitimate. It's also the case that the numbers that Donald Trump is using to describe how much the U.S. has provided in assistance to Ukraine are double the actual numbers,” he says.

“In February 2022, three years ago, it [Russia] launched a full-scale invasion of all of Ukraine and that's why Russia and Ukraine are at war, because of the Russian invasion,” says Taylor. “It's not really reasonable to say Ukraine is somehow responsible for this war. Ukraine did not ask to be invaded and they would be quite happy if Russia removed its military from Ukrainian territory.”

Listen to the full interview from Feb. 19 at the link above (starts at 8:12).