MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. By placing its trust in snake oil salesman Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the US shows its lack of judgement, thus pushing the world to the brink of World War III, Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform-For Life party, which is banned in Ukraine, and current head of the Other Ukraine movement, said.

In his column on the Smotrim.ru media platform, Viktor Medvedchuk referenced an article by The New York Times which stated that during a 2017 meeting between then-US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump sought Putin's opinion on providing military aid to Ukraine. According to the article, Putin cautioned Trump, explaining that this would be a slippery slope for the US, as the Ukrainians would continue to demand more and more.

"Back then, Vladimir Putin told the US president the plain truth, which has since been repeatedly confirmed. Zelensky is draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the collective West and costing hundreds of thousands of human lives in Ukraine. It’s clear he is not going to stop. This clown promised peace to the Ukrainian people and deceived them, and he promised Western politicians victory over Russia. He deceived them too. As we can see, Zelensky knows how to make big promises and extract money for them, but he is incapable of delivering on those promises," Medvedchuk wrote.

Incumbent US President Joe Biden "trusted not the Russian president, but a retired clown, and now the world is teetering on the brink of World War III," the Other Ukraine leader added.

"How should other countries of the world regard the US after this, when it supports Zelensky's political circus and is unable to facilitate negotiations, not only on Ukraine but also on other conflicts, such as those in the Middle East?" Medvedchuk wrote.

"Today, American diplomacy is following the clown Zelensky's so-called 'peace formula,' which has morphed into a 'victory plan,' all while mumbling something unintelligible about it as the retired clown continues to play his games," the politician added.

In his opinion, "US diplomacy has no brains left." He argued that Americans no longer come to Ukraine and other countries to find solutions or seek ways to normalize situations, but rather to dictate who is good and who is bad.

"They have forgotten [former US Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger's warning: ‘To humiliate a great country without weakening it is always a dangerous game.’ While Germany thought it was teaching Russia to appreciate the importance of German goodwill, Russia decided it would never again allow itself to be caught off guard. As we can see, the US did not catch Russia by surprise. The game has begun - a very dangerous game, as Kissinger predicted - but many American officials lack the intelligence to comprehend this," Medvedchuk concluded.