Ron DeSantis is walking 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 excerpts of an interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation, the Florida governor 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,” he said.

A rescuer carries a dog found at a site of a residential building hit by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia

“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.”

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

Mr DeSantis, seen as a top rival to Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, said defending Ukraine wasn’t a national security priority for the US, and downplayed the Russian invasion.

Former President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photo: Sue Ogrocki

The day responses were posted, Mr Trump said that Mr DeSantis’s answers were just “following what I am saying”.

But a number of Republican senators have weighed in with criticism.

And Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that failure to act on Russia’s aggression in his country could ultimately draw the US into a conflict if incursions are also made into Nato member countries.

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