Trump: Ukraine won’t be able to join NATO, Crimea will stay with Russia
US President Donald Trump believes that Ukraine should never have raised the issue of joining NATO, and Crimea should remain Russian. He stated this in an interview with Time ezine.
“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 stated.
Commenting on the possibility of recognizing the occupied Crimean peninsula as Russian territory, Trump stated that the return of the territory to Ukraine will not happen, and "everybody understands that."
“Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it's been with them for a long time,” Trump believes.
“Crimea went to the Russians. It was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama, and not by me. With that being said, will they be able to get it back? They've had their Russians. They've had their submarines there for long before any period that we're talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea. But this was given by Obama. This wasn't given by Trump. Would it have been taken from me like it was taken from Obama? No, it wouldn't have happened. Crimea, if I were president, it would not have been taken,” he added.
