John Bolton says Trump wouldn't have stood in Putin's way if a Russian invasion of Ukraine had happened during his term

• John Bolton said Trump would not have stood in Putin's way if Russia had invaded Ukraine when he was president.
• Bolton added that Trump had little understanding of "what the stakes were" in Ukraine.

John Bolton, the US' former national security advisor, said his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, would not have stood in Putin's way if a Russian invasion of Ukraine had happened when he was in office.

"Well, I'm not sure he would have done much of anything, frankly," Bolton said in an interview with Vice published March 1, responding to a question about what Trump might have done had Russia attacked Ukraine while he was president.

"But you never know with Trump. It depends on what time of day it is, it depends on what he thought his political benefit would be at any given moment. I don't think ultimately he would have stood in Putin's way," Bolton told Vice.

Bolton said he thought Trump's glorification of Putin was "embarrassing for the United States." He also said that he did not think that Trump cared about Ukraine in the first place.

"It's hard for me to describe how little he knows," Bolton said in the interview with Vice.

"When you're operating on such a poor understanding of the circumstances you're talking about, ultimately, your opinions have to be totally unsound," Bolton added. "And ultimately reality triumphs, and these opinions are seen for the flimsy and twisted thoughts that they really are."

In the same interview, Bolton criticized Trump for his lack of understanding of "what the stakes were in Ukraine."

"He once asked (then-White House Chief of Staff) John Kelly if Finland was part of Russia. What he cared about was the DNC server, and Hunter Biden, and the 2016 election, and the 2020 election," Bolton said.

Bolton said in an interview on Newsmax this week, that Trump "barely knew where Ukraine was," pushing back on Newsmax host Rob Schmitt's assertion that Trump, as president, would have handled Russia better than Biden.

Trump has slammed the Biden administration, claiming it was their "stupidity" and "incompetence" that led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He also baselessly claimed the crisis would never have unfolded if he had been president.

Trump was impeached in 2019 for withholding nearly $400 million in vital military aid from Ukraine. While in office, Trump also repeatedly bashed NATO and raised the possibility of the US leaving the alliance.

Insider's live blog of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is covering developments as they happen.