The Kremlin said that a "significant part" of Ukraine wants to be Russian and that this is "in line" with US President Donald Trump's comments yesterday that "one day (Ukrainians) may be Russian", reported Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
“The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russian and has already become Russian is a reality”, said the spokesman for the Russian president Dmitry Peskov, referring to the annexation of Ukrainian territories in the fall of 2022.
Russia annexed the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions after manipulated referendums in these conflict zones. In 2014 it also annexed the Crimean peninsula, AFP points out. “The people who, despite many dangers, lined up and voted in the referendum to join Russia - this largely corresponds to what President Trump said“ yesterday, Peskov said.
Trump raised the issue yesterday of the possibility of Ukraine becoming “one day Russian“ and called for compensation for aid provided to Kiev, further muddying the waters regarding the new US administration's position on this conflict.
These statements also come at a time when intensive high-level contacts are expected between Washington and Kiev in the coming days, AFP notes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference (MSC). Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, who is scheduled to visit Kiev on February 20, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also attend this annual gathering of political and diplomatic elites, mostly from the West.