Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has accused President Joe Biden of purposely escalating the Russia-Ukraine war before Donald Trump comes into office.
Speaking on his Verdict podcast, Cruz said Biden was "pouring gasoline around the White House" after the president gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. in Russia, as well as for the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Kyiv.
Cruz said that both decisions arrived after Trump won the 2024 election, indicating that Biden was trying to "deliberately escalate" the war so the president-elect cannot later be praised for helping to end the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned that if Ukraine was allowed to use Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), Moscow would consider this as NATO countries being in "direct participation" in the war. "This will mean that NATO countries, the U.S. and European states, are fighting with Russia," Putin said in September, per the BBC.
"During the entire course of this war, Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris haven't signed off on either of these steps until right now," Cruz said. "Before the election, they didn't want to act for fear of being responsible for any escalation that came from it. They didn't give the green light.
"But after the election is over, after they're on the way out, it's like they're standing there pouring gasoline around the White House and looking for a match. I mean, they really are trying to light things on fire."
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
Cruz went on to say he was with Trump on the president-elect's private plane when the news broke that Biden had approved the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
"We were watching on TV the news about the Biden administration and what it was doing to deliberately escalate the war with Russia. I've got to say, everyone on the plane was shaking our heads, saying, 'They're trying to start World War 3.' I mean, that's it, they are deliberately trying to make things worse."
Cruz added that he believes the Ukraine-Russia war will end next year in a Russian defeat after "some sort of negotiated settlement." The senator also said Israel will defeat the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza under Trump's presidency.
"And this Biden White House, they don't want either of those outcomes to happen," Cruz said. "These decisions are systematically designed to make it harder and harder and harder to end these wars, and they're incredibly irresponsible.
"It is the foreign policy equivalent of what they're doing on the border. In both instances, trying to make it as bad as possible before the new administration comes in."
Trump has pledged to end the near three-year war between Russia and Ukraine in one day upon entering office.
Trump has given no major indication of how he intends to do so, with critics suggesting it would involve negotiating with Ukraine to hand over part of its land to Russia.
When previously contacted for comment, the Trump transition team pointed Newsweek to the following statement from Communications Director Steven Cheung: "As President Trump has said on the campaign trail, he is the only person who can bring both sides together in order to negotiate peace, and work towards ending the war and stopping the killing."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised reports that Biden had approved the use of long-range weapons to conduct strikes into Russian territory.
"But strikes are not carried out with words. These things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves," Zelensky said in a November 17 statement.
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