Biden accuses Trump of 'modern day appeasement'

Ex-US leader attacks successor over Putin as Ukraine drones cause Moscow flight chaos ahead of Victory Day parade

- ALASTAIR JAMIESON

Donald Trump's pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia amounts to "modern day appeasement", Joe Biden said yesterday as Vladimir Putin welcomed China's president and other leaders for his annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.

The former US president told the BBC that his successor risked losing transatlantic confidence in the United States. "Europe's leaders are asking: 'Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?"" he said.

Of special concern was the White House proposal to let Russia keep some Ukrainian territory in an effort to strike a peace deal.

"It is modern-day appeasement," Mr Biden said, referring to territorial concessions to Adolf Hitler by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that failed to prevent the Second World War.

He also said Mr Trump's treatment of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February was "beneath America".

Mr Trump has long dismissed the war in Ukraine as a waste of lives and American taxpayers' money.