Donald Trump said “the windmills don’t work” as he gave a rambling and incoherent answer to a question about how Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine could escalate.

       “Well, and I said this a long time ago, if this happens, we are playing right into their hands,” the former president told the Full Send podcast, hosted by YouTubers.

       He had been asked what he envisaged “happening next” and “how does this all end” by Nelk Boys, a Canadian You Tube channel, founder Kyle Forgeard as the conflict raged in Ukraine.

       “The windmills don’t work,” Mr Trump added. “They’re too expensive. They kill all the birds. They ruin your landscapes.” “And yet the environmentalists love the windmills,” he went on. “And I’ve been preaching this for years.

       “The windmills ― and I had them way down ― but the windmills are the most expensive energy you can have. And they don’t work.”

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       Mr Trump has previously voiced his disapproval of wind turbines and became locked in a legal battle with the Scottish government over a major development in the North Sea, which his Aberdeenshire golf course looked onto. He unsuccessfully tried to halt the project and was ordered to pay the Scottish government’s undisclosed legal costs.

       The former reality TV star’s comments came as the bloodshed continued in several cities across Ukraine, including the port city of Mariupol in the southeast, where Mr Putin’s troops bombed several hospitals, including a maternity and children’s facility, injuring 17 people and killing three, including a child.

       A building is reduce to rubble in Ukraine after getting hit by Russian bombs

       (National Police of Ukraine/AFP v)

       The attack sparked outrage and condemnation around the world on Thursday, with Ukrainian and British officials branding it a war crime. As efforts to reach a broad cease-fire failed, emergency workers renewed efforts to get vital food and medical supplies into besieged cities, and to get traumatised residents out.

       Reports on the ground on Thursday afternoon said the city has come under a renewed bombardment.