Ron DeSantis walks back ‘territorial dispute’ remark on Russia-Ukraine war

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has walked back his characterisation of Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute”, following criticism from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about the potential 2024 presidential candidate’s dismissive description of the conflict.

In an interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation, DeSantis said his earlier comments referenced ongoing fighting in the eastern Donbas region, as well as Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea. Ukraine’s borders are internationally recognised, including by the United Nations.

“What I’m referring to is where the fighting is going on now, which is that eastern border region Donbas, and then Crimea, and you have a situation where Russia has had that. I don’t think legitimately, but they had,” DeSantis said, according to excerpts of the interview. “There’s a lot of ethnic Russians there. So, that’s some difficult fighting, and that’s what I was referring to, and so it wasn’t that I thought Russia had a right to that, and so if I should have made that more clear, I could have done it.”

DeSantis made his initial comments last week in a written response to questions sent to declared and potential Republican presidential candidates by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The Florida governor, seen as a top rival to former president Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, said that defending Ukraine wasn’t a national security priority for the US, and he played down the Russian invasion.

​“While the US has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis wrote, echoing how Russia has characterised its ongoing invasion.