The US President Donald Trump believes that Russian-occupied Crimea is about the size of the US state of Texas. He also said that the peninsula is located in the middle of the ocean.
He said this on The Mark Levin Show.
Trump stated that former US President Barack Obama gave Crimea to Russia in 2014, and Ukraine did not fight for it.
"Crimea was the heart and soul of this country. Itʼs beautiful. You know, itʼs a huge piece of land right in the ocean!" Trump described the Ukrainian peninsula.
The host noted that Crimea is located in the Black Sea. Trump reiterated that he thinks Crimea is very beautiful.
According to him, the annexation of Crimea by Russia marked the beginning of a "catastrophically long period for Ukraine".
"If I had given that land away, I would have been on the front pages of every newspaper for the next 20 years. When Obama did it, they donʼt even talk about it, can you imagine?" said the head of the White House.
He then repeated that Crimea is “wonderful” and “huge”, and compared its size to Texas, the second-largest state in the United States after Alaska. Its area is over 695 000 km², which is larger than the entire territory of Ukraine (603.6 thousand km²) and approximately 26 times the area of Crimea (27 000 km²).
One of the users of the social network X superimposed a map of Texas on the map of Ukraine to compare the scale.
- Trump has repeatedly accused his predecessor — Barack Obama — of Russiaʼs occupation of Crimea in 2014. He reiterated this thesis, in particular, during an interview with Time on the 100th day of his presidency in April.
- "Crimea went to Russia — it was ʼgivenʼ to them by Barack Hussein Obama, not me. Can they get it back? Doubtful. The Russians were there a long time ago, even before we started talking about it. The majority of the population there speaks Russian. But again, Obama did it, not me. If I were president, this wouldnʼt have happened," Trump said.
- He also criticized Zelensky for his statement that Ukraine does not legally recognize Crimea as Russian. The American president is convinced that this statement is "very damaging to peace negotiations with Russia".
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.