Donald Trump claimed there would have been "zero chance" the Ukraine war would have happened if he had been US President. The ex-Potus made the remarks to Republican Party leaders at their annual meeting in

over the weekend. The New Hampshire visit officially kicked off Trump's 2024 White House bid, which the former President originally announced in November.

Addressing the party faithful, he boasted that he could solve the Ukraine war "in 24 hours"

The real estate tycoon said his Democrat opponents had tried to brand him as a warmonger in the run up to the 2016 presidential elections, but insisted he was quite the opposite.

Referencing his political nemesis, he told his audience: "Remember crooked Hilary? 'He's going to cause a war in his first week in office.'

"Because they think that's my personality type. But it's actually the opposite. My personality kept us out of war.

"And I told you before, [it] would have never happened with Russia.

"Putin would have never ever gone in. And even now I could solve that in 24 hours.

"It's so horrible what happened. Those cities are demolished now."

He added: "If I were President, you would have had zero chance that that war would have happened."

Mr Trump provoked outrage and controversy when he met Vladimir Putin for official talks in Helsinki as President in 2018.

At a press conference he publicly defended Russia against accusations Moscow had interfered with the US 2016 elections.

In doing so, he contradicted US intelligence agencies, who said the Kremlin had sought to influence the outcome.

Last year in an interview with Fox News, Trump said he would have got tough with Putin over the Russian president's persistent threats to use nuclear weapons if the US and its allies interfered in his war in Ukraine.

Fears of nuclear escalation have shaped Western policy responses to the war, leading to criticisms that Nato members were allowing themselves to be bullied by Moscow.

Trump, however, insisted he would not allow Putin to intimidate him if he still had his finger on the nuclear button.

He told Fox Business: "I listened to him [Putin] constantly using the N-word, that’s the N-word, and he’s constantly using it: the nuclear word.

"We say, ‘Oh, he’s a nuclear power.’”

"But we’re a greater nuclear power. We have the greatest submarines in the world, the most powerful machines ever built …

"You should say, ‘Look, if you mention that word one more time, we’re going to send them over and we’ll be coasting back and forth, up and down your coast.'

"You can’t let this tragedy continue. You can’t let these, these thousands of people die."

He has also said the US should put the Chinese flag on F-22 jets and "bomb the shit out of Russia", and then "say, ‘China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it,’ and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch".