Donad Trump's threats and claims about Canada may be unprecedented in the history of U.S.-Canada relations. But they have a strong precedent elsewhere in recent history: They closely resemble remarks made by Russia's Vladimir Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” and began talks with Russia, even some of Zelensky’s harshest domestic critics have begun defending him.

By Wednesday, Zelensky pushed back on Trump’s ridiculous assertions by saying that he was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” and, in response, Trump attacked the Ukrainian leader as a “Dictator without Elections” in a long,