Cornered over Ukraine remark, Trump says what he meant to say

New York, Aug 2: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is facing a double trouble both in the domestic (read his locking horns with the Khan family) and foreign (Ukraine remark) affairs, tried to explain his position on the latter issue. [Hillary slams Trump for "absolute allegiance" to Russia]

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• Obama, McCain slam Trump for remarks on Khan family

On Monday (Aug 1), Trump tweeted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not go to Ukraine if he became the president of the US. In another tweet, the real-estate tycoon said: ""with all of the Obama tough talk on Russia and the Ukraine, they have already taken Crimea and continue to push. That's what I said!" [Russia prefers Trump as next US president: Survey]

Political observers felt Trump's explanation suggested that he wasn't aware of the fact that Russian troops were already in Ukraine while making his controversial remark on Sunday (July 31).

"Putin won't go to Ukraine"

On that occasion, he told in an interview to ABC that Putin would not make any military adventure into Ukraine while the reality is that he has already done that and took control of the country's Crimean Peninsula and earning condemnation from the western world.

"He's not going into Ukraine, OK, 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 in the interview on "This Week."

When the interviewer, George Stephanopoulos pointed out the fact that the Russians have already entered into Ukraine, Trump turned the gun towards President Barack Obama. He said: "OK -- 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. In the meantime, he's going away. He takes Crimea."

Also when facing criticism for his soft approach towards Putin, Trump asked whether it wouldn't be great if the US went along with Russia.

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