Crimea went to the Russians in 2014 and it will remain with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday. “Crimea will stay with Russia,” Trump told the magazine, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “understands that.” “Everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along,” the U.S. president said. “This is a war that should never have happened. I call it the war that should have never happened,” Trump said. Earlier this week, Trump ranted against Zelenskyy for refusing to ever recognize Crimea as Russian, claiming Ukraine should have fought for it in 2014 and blaming Zelenskyy for prolonging the war.
When asked if Ukraine should give up any hope of ever joining NATO, Trump criticized the war-torn country for talking about the security alliance. “I don’t think they’ll ever be able to join NATO. I think that’s been—from day one, I think that’s been, that’s I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren’t brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn’t have started,” Trump said. And, when asked if it would be an acceptable deal to him if Crimea and the four other regions that Moscow has taken from Ukraine would be folded into Russia under a final accommodation, the president said Crimea would stay with Russia.
Donald Trump has said “Crimea will stay with Russia” in a new interview with Time Magazine. The US president also blamed Ukraine again for the starting the war, claiming Kyiv provoked Moscow by lobbying to join Nato. “I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining Nato,” he said. A US proposal to end the war in Ukraine, which was presented to Ukraine and its European allies last week, included an official recognition of Crimea as Russian by Washington, which would violate international law. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, rejected the proposal.
