Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin

Russian leader Vladimir Putin fielded questions from Tucker Carlson during a roughly two-hour interview released on Thursday. Putin discussed the history of Ukraine and Russia for roughly half an hour, explaining why he believes Ukraine should be a part of Russia. The Russian leader also urged the United States to push Ukraine to the negotiating table, saying that if the U.S. ended its support for Ukraine, the war would be over in weeks.

What sort of questions did Carlson ask? Carlson did question Putin about the possibility that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich could be returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange. Putin suggested that such an exchange was a possibility. Media outlets have criticized Carlson for not pushing back on Putin’s claims, while Carlson has claimed the point of the interview was to counter what he calls a one-sided view of the Ukraine war.

Dig deeper: Read Eric Teetsel’s column in WORLD Opinions about the fight over Ukraine funding in Congress.