Trump says Putin will not attack NATO territory, downplays Ratcliffe trip

​U.S. President Donald ‌Trump said on ​Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attack a NATO country, ‌and he played down media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials against such an attack earlier in ‌the week. "He's not going to attack a NATO ‌territory," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Earlier in the day, Trump told Axios in a phone interview that there would be no ⁠such ​attack, and ⁠that Ratcliffe had not been dispatched to Moscow to deliver any ⁠particular message. "Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six months or ​once every year. They have a very good ⁠relationship. There was no message and there was nothing unusual," Trump ⁠told ​the news outlet. European and U.S. intelligence officials have long monitored Russian sabotage and gray zone attacks in Europe ⁠that fall below the threshold of full-on war and are generally ⁠aimed ⁠at weakening NATO's unity and its member states' willingness to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.