Russia and Putin · 2024 campaign · № 72
Said he could have made a deal letting Russia 'take over' Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine
“At worst, I could've made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could've worked a deal.”
- Said
- , Radio interview with Sean Hannity
- Subject
- Russian-speaking areas
- Type
- Ukraine
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- 2024 campaign
What happened
In a Monday, March 6, 2023 radio interview with Sean Hannity, Trump said Russia 'took over nothing' while he was in office, that Putin 'would have never done it' had he remained president, and that even 'without even negotiating a deal' he could have averted the invasion; 'at worst,' he said, he could have made a deal for Russia to 'take over' Russian-speaking areas. The Daily Beast reported, and Salon and Mother Jones noted, that the excerpt Hannity aired on his Fox News program that evening cut away before the 'take over' remark. Mother Jones noted that the deal he described resembled the 2016 'peace plan' for an autonomous republic in eastern Ukraine that Konstantin Kilimnik, described by the Senate Intelligence Committee as a Russian intelligence officer, pressed on Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.