Trump praises ‘genius’ Putin for moving troops to eastern Ukraine

Donald Trump has said that Vladimir Putin is "very savvy" and made a "genius" move by declaring two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states and moving Russian armed forces to them.

The former US president said that the Russian president had made a "smart move" by sending "the strongest peace force I've ever seen" to the area.

Trump, a long-term admirer of Putin who was impeached over allegations he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless it could help damage the reputation of Joe Biden, praised the Russian president's moves while also claiming that they would not have happened if he was still president.

"But here's a guy that says, you know, 'I'm gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent' - he used the word 'independent' - 'and we're gonna go out and we're gonna go in and we're gonna help keep peace.' You gotta say that's pretty savvy."

Trump's intervention was criticized by the two Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, who are among the few Republicans who have been critical of the former president. Liz Cheney tweeted that Trump's statement "aids our enemies. Trump's interests don't seem to align with the interests of the United States of America."

Adam Kinzinger, meanwhile, retweeted a screenshot from the House Republicans that showed Biden walking away - which was captioned with the comment: "This is what weakness on the world stage looks like" - to denounce it in fiery terms. Kinzinger wrote: "As still 'technically' a member of house Republicans, let me, with all my might, condemn this damn awful tweet during this crisis. You can criticize policy but this is insane and feeds into Putins narrative. But hey, retweets amirite?"

During a lengthy speech on Monday that questioned Ukraine's right to exist, Putin said he recognized the independence of two breakaway regions in Ukraine's east - the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) - and that Russian troops will be sent there for "peacekeeping operations".