Former President Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin's moves in Ukraine, calling him "savvy," after the Kremlin recognized the independence of two breakaway, Russian separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine.

"I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion ... of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent," Trump said in an interview Tuesday on the conservative Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.