CNN reports, Donald Trump said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't make a military move into Ukraine -- even though Putin already has done just that, seizing the country's Crimean Peninsula.
"He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want," Trump said in an interview.
"Well, he's already there, isn't he?" journalist responded, in a reference to Crimea, which Putin took from Ukraine in early 2014.
Trump said: "OK -- well, he's there in a certain way. But I'm not there. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama with all the strength that you're talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this. In the meantime, he's going away. He takes Crimea."
Stephanopoulos (journalist) interjected to note that Trump has suggested he could recognize Russia's claim on Crimea over Ukraine's -- and Trump didn't back away from that possibility in the interview.
"I'm going to take a look at it," he said. "But you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also ... just so you understand, that was done under Obama's administration."
Trump added: "And as far as the Ukraine is concerned, it's a mess. And that's under the Obama's administration with his strong ties to NATO. So with all of these strong ties to NATO, Ukraine is a mess. Crimea has been taken. Don't blame Donald Trump for that."
The Clinton campaign responded later Sunday, with senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan saying: "What is he talking about? Russia is already in Ukraine. Does he not know that? What else doesn't he know?"
"Today, (Trump) gamely repeated Putin's argument that Russia was justified in seizing the sovereign territory of another country by force. This is scary stuff," Sullivan said in a statement. "But it shouldn't surprise us. This comes on the heels of his tacit invitation to the Russians to invade our NATO allies in Eastern Europe."
Stephanopoulos also pressed Trump on changes to the Republican platform removing calls for the provision of lethal weapons so the people of Ukraine can defend themselves, which Trump said he had nothing to do with.
And he asked about Trump's claims in recent years that he has a personal relationship with Putin.
"I have no relationship with Putin. I have no relationship with Putin," Trump said.
"Just so you understand, he said very nice things about me. But I have no relationship with him. I don't -- I've never met him," said Trump.
But in a November 2015 Republican primary debate, Trump had said of Putin "I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes,' we were stablemates."
