Per week after calling the war between Ukraine and Russia a “territorial dispute,” Ron DeSantis swiftly modified his message in an interview revealed Wednesday, pronouncing Russia used to be unsuitable to invade its neighboring nation and calling for Vladimir Putin to be held responsible.
“I think he is a war criminal,” the Republican Florida governor told the New York Post’s Piers Morgan.
Ukraine, he added, has a “right to that territory.”
“If I could snap my fingers, I’d give it back to Ukraine 100%,” mentioned DeSantis, who’s noticed as prone to release a presidential marketing campaign later this yr. “But the reality is what is America’s involvement in terms of escalating with more weapons, and certainly ground troops I think would be a mistake. So, that was the point I was trying to make, but Russia was wrong to invade. They were wrong to take Crimea.”
The governor used to be rebuked remaining week, together with by some Republican leaders, after he issued a remark to Fox News host Tucker Carlson calling the Ukraine-Russia struggle a “territorial dispute” that used to be no longer within the United States’ “vital” pastime. Critics charged that DeSantis used to be mimicking former President Donald Trump’s international coverage, a place at odds no longer simplest with the Republican Party’s historically hawkish view of Russia however the governor’s personal earlier positions on Ukraine.
The feedback even received a reaction from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who argued they had been short-sighted.
In Wednesday’s interview, DeSantis mentioned his connection with a “territorial dispute” used to be “mischaracterized” however stated he will have extra obviously said his view.
The governor reiterated he doesn’t assume American troops will have to transform concerned within the struggle — a place shared through Democratic President Joe Biden — and predicted Putin would no longer win the war.
“I think those regions in the [eastern] border, and Crimea, are likely to be a stalemate for quite some time, and unfortunately a lot of people will end up dying if that’s the case,” he instructed The New York Post. “But I do not think it’s going to end with Putin being victorious. I do not think the Ukrainian government is going to be toppled by him, and I think that’s a good thing.”
DeSantis is operating 2d in lots of early polls of the 2024 GOP presidential number one, trailing simplest former President Donald Trump in spite of no longer but officially getting into the race.
Trump, as he has begun to do incessantly, criticized DeSantis once more in a remark Wednesday, arguing that DeSantis’ document as governor on problems starting from crime to deaths from the coronavirus used to be unimpressive.
“The fact is, Ron is an average Governor, but the best by far in the Country in one category, Public Relations, where he easily ranks Number One — But it is all a Mirage, just look at the facts and figures, they don’t lie — And we don’t want Ron as our President!” Trump mentioned.