“I don’t think they’ll ever be able to join NATO,” Trump said in an interview with Time Magazine published on Friday, blaming Kyiv’s aspirations for Russia’s invasion.

“I think that’s been — from day one, I think that’s been, that’s I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren’t brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn’t have started,” Trump said. 

Trump’s comments come as he has been ratcheting up pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept a peace deal which critics say favors Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a bid to deliver on a 2024 campaign promise to end the war quickly.

The US president’s claims Russia started the war because of Ukraine’s plan to join NATO echoes the Kremlin’s justification for its invasion. But Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO was rejected in 2008 when a summit of the alliance in Bucharest, Romania, declined to provide the country with a membership action plan. 

During the campaign Trump repeatedly said that he would be able to broker a deal at the start of his term, citing his relationship with Putin.

“I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point,” Trump said when asked about his claims that he could end the war on Day One. “Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that it will be ended.”

Trump has said he is willing to abandon peace talks altogether if there is no sign of progress. At a meeting in Paris last week, the US presented Ukrainian and European officials with a proposal to end the war that effectively would freeze the conflict along existing battle lines. 

The US is also willing to recognize Russia’s control over Crimea as part of a deal, Bloomberg previously reported.

Freezing the conflict would be a sacrifice for Ukraine, which has sought to regain all territory in the country’s south and east taken by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, and following Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion.

“Well, Crimea went to the Russians. It was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama, and not by me,” Trump said when asked if Russia should keep that territory.

“With that being said, will they be able to get it back? They’ve had their Russians. They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea. But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump,” he added.

Asked if he would accept a deal in which Crimea and other regions Putin has taken from Ukraine were folded into Russia, Trump said, “Crimea will stay with Russia.” Adding Zelenskiy, “understands that.”  

Crimea was illegally seized by Russia in 2014 in violation of international law.

Trump has expressed frustration over the pace of efforts to end the war, in particular with Zelenskiy, ripping the Ukrainian leader in a social media post on Wednesday for saying that his country would not recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and that doing so would go against Ukraine’s constitution. 

Those comments have intensified worries in Kyiv and its allies that the US president’s rush to secure a deal will sacrifice European collective security.

The US president also criticized Putin after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Kyiv calling it “Not necessary, and very bad timing,” in a post to his social media platform on Thursday. He urged Putin to “STOP!”