• “The day after the Olympics, he (Putin) starts with Ukraine. How smart? You know, he didn’t want to do it during the Olympics. And then – boom! You know when he goes in and takes Crimea, taking the heart and soul because that’s where all the money is.”
– March 2014, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C.
• “So that means the rest of Ukraine will fall and it is predicted to fall very quickly. So when you see what they are doing in Ukraine – it is just a question of time.”
– March 2014 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C .
• “The U.S. has appealed for Russia not to intervene in Ukraine – Russia tells U.S. they will not become involved, and then laughs loudly!”
– Twitter, February 2014.
• “He (Vladimir Putin) was doing an amazing job of taking the mantle. He’s doing so smart. When, you see the riots in the country (Ukraine), because they are hurting Russians. Ok, we’re taking over it. He really goes step by step, by step. And you have to give him a lot of credit.”
– From an appearance on Fox News in April 2014.
• “I wouldn’t care. If (Ukraine) goes in, great. If it doesn’t go in, great.”
– In August 2015 to NBC News, while responding to the question about Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO.
• “Our president is not strong and he’s not doing that he should be doing for Ukraine. So far all we have all lip service and nothing else. Part of the problem that Ukraine has with the U.S. is that Putin does not respect our president whatsoever.”
– Comment in video link from U.S at YES conference in Kyiv in September 2015.
• “We’re fighting for the Ukraine, but nobody else is fighting for the Ukraine other than the Ukraine itself, of course, and I said, it doesn’t seem fair and it doesn’t seem logical.”
– Interview with the New York Times in March 2016.
• “And now you have people in the Ukraine, who knows, set up or not, but it can’t all be set up. I mean, they’re marching in favor of joining Russia. The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”
– Speaking to ABC news in July 2016.
• “Putin is not going into Ukraine.”
– In an interview with ABC News. After journalist George Stephanopolous reminded him of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Russian troops fighting in the Donbas, Trump answered: “OK, well, he’s there in a certain way, but I’m not there yet. That whole part of the world is a mess under Obama.”
• “When I said in an interview that Putin is ‘not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down,’ I am saying if I am president. Already in Crimea! So with all of the Obama tough talk on Russia and the Ukraine, they have already taken Crimea and continue to push. That’s what I said!”
– Twitter in August 2016, apparently explaining his comments to ABC in July.
