'Trump is ours!': Russian state TV celebrates Trump's suggestion that Crimea is part of Russia
- A host of a news show on state-run channel Russia 24 declared "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!" following a report that US President Donald Trump suggested Crimea is part of Russia.
- Crimea, formerly part of Ukraine, was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014.
- BuzzFeed reported that during a dinner at the G7 summit Trump claimed Crimea is rightfully part of Russia because everyone there speaks Russian.
Hosts of a show on Russian state-run TV channel Russia 24 celebrated President Donald Trump reportedly claiming to other world leaders that Crimea is part of Russia because everyone there speaks Russian.
Two anonymous sources told Buzzfeed that Trump made the remarks at a dinner during the G7 summit in Canada.
In a YouTube clip from Friday whose title roughly translates to "It is high time! Trump called Crimea Russian!," hosts of the Russia 24 show "60 minutes" discussed the BuzzFeed report, and seemed to interpret Trump's remarks as his official recognition of Crimea's status as Russian.
At the end of the program, "60 Minutes" co-host Olga Skabeeva triumphantly declared "Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!"
Crimea, a peninsula that juts out south of Ukraine into the Black Sea, has been contested territory between Russia and Ukraine for centuries. It was part of Ukraine until 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea with the help of pro-Russian separatists.
The annexation of Crimea led to widespread international condemnation, sanctions, and Russia's expulsion from the G8. The vast majority of UN member states, including the US, recognizes Crimea as Ukraine's rightful territory.
Russian Senator Oleg Morozov, a member of the Russian Senate's international affairs committee, was a guest on the show.
He stated, "What Trump says is just as important as what he doesn't say. With his failure to deny the Crimea comments, Trump is demonstrating that he is willing to abandon the transatlantic unity & Ukraine means nothing to him."
The "transatlantic unity" mostly likely refers to NATO, a group of countries in North America and Europe that share a military and security alliance. NATO officially suspended all cooperation with Russia, which is not a NATO member, almost immediately after their annexation of Crimea in 2014.