Former Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said that Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election was a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans regarding Ukraine.
Speaking on Ukraine’s Channel 5, Omelyan argued that Biden played a crucial role in uniting Western allies ahead of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The biggest problem for Putin was that Trump lost and Biden became president. It completely disrupted his plans. We still don’t fully realize this, but I believe Biden deserves a monument in Ukraine more than anyone else, right across from the Bessarabsky Market,” the former minister said.
Omelyan emphasized that the Biden administration had warned about Russia’s preparations for a full-scale invasion, even as many people in Ukraine and Western countries doubted that a major war was possible.
According to Omelyan, the U.S. president also made significant efforts to restore NATO unity and build an international coalition in support of Ukraine.
“If Trump had been president instead of Biden at that time, I think we would have found ourselves alone against a terrifying enemy, without any support whatsoever,” he suggested.
Omelyan also criticized the position of some European politicians during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He claimed that officials in several European capitals had urged Ukraine’s leadership to accept the new reality.
At the same time, he praised the positions taken by Biden, his national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The former minister also claimed that Johnson had prevented Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia from signing what Omelyan described as a capitulation agreement during peace talks in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. This remains Omelyan’s interpretation rather than an established fact.
In addition, Omelyan sharply criticized Ukraine’s system of governance in the period leading up to the invasion. He alleged that individuals acting in the Kremlin’s interests had been placed within government structures and accused the country’s leadership at the time of creating administrative chaos. He provided no evidence to substantiate these allegations in the quoted remarks.
Overall, Omelyan argued that the Biden administration’s active diplomatic efforts and coordination with European allies significantly complicated Putin’s original plans for Ukraine.
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