President Trump opened his remarks at the Group of 7 gathering of industrialized nations by criticizing the decision to expel Russia from the bloc after Moscow’s 2014 “annexation” of Crimea.

While Europeans would like Washington to impose more sanctions on Moscow, Donald Trump has once again expressed his disappointment with the positions of both the Russians and the Ukrainians in the search for peace.

President Donald Trump claimed Monday that the Russia-Ukraine war could have been avoided if Moscow was still a part of the G7 forum. Trump called Russia’s 2014 expulsion from the group a grave mistake and suggested that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine had Trump been in the White House four years ago.