US President Donald Trump said he does not imagine Ukraine joining NATO in the future, reiterating the administration’s stance of giving up hope that Kiev would join the military alliance.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to join NATO,” Trump criticized Kiev’s desire to invade Russia in a Time Magazine interview released Friday.
“I think that’s true – from day one, I think it was when they started talking about joining NATO. If it had grown up, it wouldn’t have started,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments are happening as critics are putting pressure on Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky to accept a peace deal that critics support in order to fulfill their promises that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will quickly end the 2024 campaign.
The US President’s claim was that Russia launched the war as Ukrainian plans to join NATO reflect justification for the Kremlin invasion. However, Ukrainian desire to join NATO was rejected in 2008 when the alliance summit in Bucharest, Romania, refused to provide the country with a plan of membership action.
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could mediate the deal by citing his relationship with Putin at the start of his term.
“I said it figuratively, and I said it as an exaggeration, because to make the point,” Trump said when asked about his claim that he could end the war on the first day. “Obviously, when I said it, I know it was jokingly said, but I was also told it was over.”
Trump has said he is willing to abandon peace negotiations altogether if there are no signs of progress. At a conference in Paris last week, the US presented Ukrainian and European officials with suggestions to end the war that effectively freezes conflicts along existing fronts.
Bloomberg previously reported that the US is also trying to grant Russia’s control over Crimea as part of the deal.
Freezing the conflict will fall victim to Ukraine, which has been trying to reclaim all the territory of the country that Russia has taken from since 2014, including Crimea, following Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“Well, Crimea went to the Russians. It was handed over to them by Barack Hussein Obama, not me,” Trump said when asked if Russia should maintain its territory.
“With that being said, can they get it back? They have Russians. They had their submarines long before the period we’ve been talking to for many years. People speak Russian mostly in Crimea. But this was given by Obama.
Trump was asked if he would accept the deals that Crimea and other regions Putin took from Ukraine. “Crimea will remain in Russia.” Added Zelenskiy and said, “I understand that.”
Crimea was illegally seized by Russia in 2014 in violation of international law.
Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the efforts to end the war, particularly with Zelensky, ripping Ukrainian leaders in a social media post Wednesday, saying his country would not recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and that doing so would be against Ukrainian constitution.
These comments will intensify concerns in Kiev and its allies, and the US president’s rush to secure deals will cost Europe’s collective security.
The US president also criticized Putin in a post on a social media platform on Thursday after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike that Russia calls it “not necessary, it’s very bad timing.” He urged Putin to “Stop it!”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
