A top Trump official is claiming Russia "was provoked" into invading Ukraine, repeating talking points used by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The war didn`’t need to happen", U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Sunday on CNN`’s State of the Union. "It was provoked. It doesn`t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The president has spoken about this. That didn`t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians".
In a separate interview, Trump`s secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, refused to state outright that Russia`s invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, telling Fox News` Shannon Bream on Sunday that it was "fair to say it`s a very complicated situation".