--- title: Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’ description: Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin will not “go into Ukraine” despite the fact that Putin took Crimea from the country. canonical: https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-31T16:04:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:48.614Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’ og:description: Despite the fact that Russia took Crimea from the Ukraine in 2014 og:url: https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt694c59649bce966a/6988a087196cf43ec503cad5/donald-trump-russia-putin.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Town Hall In Colorado Springs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’ twitter:description: Despite the fact that Russia took Crimea from the Ukraine in 2014 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt694c59649bce966a/6988a087196cf43ec503cad5/donald-trump-russia-putin.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’ > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c2453940-8f69-4a0d-b13e-dc427a96cf89&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 31, 2016 4:04 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump flashes a thumps up at the Gallogly Event Center on the campus of the University of Colorado on July 29, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump flashes a thumps up at the Gallogly Event Center on the campus of the University of Colorado on July 29, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Joe Mahoney—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jul 31, 2016 4:04 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4427551/donald-trump-hack-vladimir-putin/) on Sunday insisted that [Russian President Vladimir Putin will not “go into Ukraine”](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/31/politics/donald-trump-russia-ukraine-crimea-putin/index.html) despite the fact that Putin took [Crimea](http://time.com/3749811/crimea-russia-annexation-anniversary/) from the European country two years ago. During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on _This Week_, the Republican presidential nominee reiterated that he didn’t have a personal relationship with [Putin](http://time.com/4427528/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-wikileaks-election/), whose government is [believed](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/us/politics/spy-agency-consensus-grows-that-russia-hacked-dnc.html?%5Fr=0) to be behind the Democratic National Committee email leaks, but that the U.S. would benefit from a good relationship with Russia. Trump also addressed remarks he made recently suggesting that he would “look into” recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and lifting the sanctions subsequently imposed on Russia. > [](https://twitter.com/ABC/status/759741329500811264) “He’s not going into Ukraine, O.K., 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 about Putin on _This Week._ “Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?” Stephanopoulos said in response, referring to Crimea. “O.K., 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,” Trump said. “In the meantime, he’s going away. He takes Crimea.” “You know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were,” Trump later added. “And you have to look at that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’","datePublished":"2016-07-31T16:04:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:48.614Z","description":"Despite the fact that Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014","url":"https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt694c59649bce966a/6988a087196cf43ec503cad5/donald-trump-russia-putin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt694c59649bce966a/6988a087196cf43ec503cad5/donald-trump-russia-putin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Town Hall In Colorado Springs","caption":"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump flashes a thumps up at the Gallogly Event Center on the campus of the University of Colorado on July 29, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.","creditText":"Joe Mahoney—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4432282/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-ukraine/","name":"Donald Trump Says Vladimir Putin Won’t ‘Go Into Ukraine’"}}]}] ```