Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ in latest push to end Ukraine war
Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, which was seized by Russia in 2014.
US President Donald Trump has said in an interview that “Crimea will stay with Russia” as Ukraine comes under mounting pressure to make concessions to end the war between the two countries.
“Zelensky understands that,” Mr Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding: “Everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”
The US president made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Mr Trump has been accusing Mr Zelensky of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Western European leaders, however, have accused Mr Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.
The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration weighs its options.
Senior US officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to a settlement. That could potentially mean a halt of crucial US military aid for Ukraine.
Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while former US president Barack Obama was in office, and years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.
“They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Mr Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”
Mr Zelensky has repeated many times during the war that recognising occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
Speaking to reporters on Friday as he left the White House to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, Mr Trump said there is no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.
“I just want to do it as fast as possible,” Mr Trump said. Negotiators are “pretty close” to a deal, he added.
He promised to meet with foreign leaders while in Rome, and said it was “possible” he could meet Mr Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment. A drone struck an apartment building in a south-eastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said on Friday, a day after Mr Trump rebuked Russia’s leader for a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the night-time drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the north-eastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
Amid the peace efforts, Russia pounded Kyiv in an hours-long barrage on Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.
The attack drew a rare rebuke of Mr Putin from Mr Trump, who has said that a push to end the war is coming to a head.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Mr Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
Mr Trump’s frustration is growing as his effort to forge a deal between Ukraine and Russia has failed to achieve a breakthrough.
US envoy Steve Witkoff met Mr Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.
The Kremlin released a short video of Mr Putin and Mr Witkoff greeting each other.
“How are you, Mr president?” Mr Witkoff could be heard saying. “Fine, just fine, thank you,” Mr Putin responded in rare remarks in English, as the two shook hands.
Mr Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy for international co-operation Kirill Dmitriev joined the two at the table for the talks.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with CBS’ Face The Nation that he agreed with Mr Trump’s opinion that negotiations “are moving in the right direction”.
Russia, he said, is “ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points — elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned”. He declined to provide further details, according to excerpts of the interview that will air on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a senior Russian military officer was killed by a car bomb near Moscow on Friday, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said.
The attack follows the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on December 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Lt Gen Kirillov.
Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
Russian forces used Thursday’s attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 620-mile front line, Mr Zelensky said late on Thursday.
“When the maximum of our forces was focused on defence against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,” he wrote on Telegram.
Mr Zelensky noted on Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a US ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued.
During recent talks, Russia hit the city of Sumy, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, battered Odesa with drones and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.
