Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that expelling Russia from the G8 was a mistake and claimed that had Russia remained part of the group, the war in Ukraine would not have happened, according to the BBC.

Speaking at a G7 summit in Canada, Trump asserted that if he had been president four years earlier, Russia would not have launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He reiterated his long-standing view that diplomatic inclusion, rather than isolation, could have prevented the conflict.

Russia's membership in the G8 was suspended in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea. In 2017, the Russian government formally withdrew, reducing the group back to the G7.

Trump had previously proposed in 2018 that Russia be invited back into the G8, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded that Moscow had no interest in rejoining the bloc.