Donald Trump has blamed Barack Obama for Russia gaining control of Crimea, accusing the former president of ‘just handing over’ the territory.
Peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war between them have stalled this week, with Trump blaming Volodymyr Zelensky for this.
One of the key sticking points in a peace deal is Ukraine’s refusal to give up any of the territory Russia has taken in the war. President Zelensky has also said Ukraine will never legally recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea, something that Trump and the US seem willing to do.
Speaking at the Oval Office, the president was asked by a reporter if he still thought Ukraine would have to give up some of its territory in a peace deal with Russia.
This is something Trump has called for on a number of occasions since the start of his presidency.
Responding, Trump said the US would ‘do the best we can’ for Ukraine but said the nation had ‘lost a lot of territory.’
Addressing the subject of Crimea in particular, Trump hit out at former president Barack Obama, accusing him of ‘just handing over’ Crimea to Russia when Putin’s forces illegally annexed the territory in 2014.
He said: “When you say Crimea, that was handed over during the president named Barack Hussein Obama. That had nothing to do with me, Crimea, that was 11 years ago with Obama. They made a decision. There wasn’t a bullet fired. There was no fighting, there was no anything. They just handed it over. Now they say ‘well can you get it back?'”
Trump added he thought it would be a ‘real difficult thing to do’ to get Crimea back for Ukraine, saying the region was “given by Barack Obama, not by Donald Trump.”
Trump has told his aides he wants to end the war in Ukraine within the first 100 days of his presidency. For Trump to meet this self-imposed deadline, a peace deal would need to be signed by April 30th.
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