U.S. President Donald Trump is blaming Volodymyr Zelenskyy for delaying the potential for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, arguing that the Ukrainian president could end the war if he agreed to formally hand over Crimea to Russia as a part of a proposed peace deal.
“No person is asking Zelenskyy to acknowledge Crimea as Russian Territory, but when he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia with no shot being fired?” the president wrote on Truth Social in a lengthy post on Wednesday.
Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, April 23, that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should hand over Crimea to Russia to secure a ceasefire deal.
Donald Trump / Truth Social
Russian forces annexed the Crimean peninsula in the course of the Ukrainian revolution in February 2014.
An influence vacuum created by the rebellion, which got here about after former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych didn’t sign an agreement aligning Ukraine more closely with the EU — as an alternative selecting to strengthen ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin — provided Russia with the chance to seize the world. Inside just two months, Putin had declared it Russian territory.
The strategically positioned region gives Russia access to quite a few ocean routes within the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans.
It is usually home to priceless energy supplies, including offshore oil and gas stores within the Black Sea; the invasion granted Russia access to a few of those vital assets.
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Taking control of Crimea was also a political move and an “attempt by Russia to make any western integration with Ukraine much less attractive,” Emily Ferris, a research fellow on the Royal United Services Institute, explained in a video on the Imperial War Museum’s website, adding that it was precursor to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy shut down the notion of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia as a part of any agreement.
“There may be nothing to speak about — it’s our land, the land of the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy said. He doubled down on Wednesday, telling media, “Stopping the killing is task primary.”
His initial rebuttal got here a day before high-level talks set for Wednesday in London between U.S., European and Ukrainian officials were downgraded after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, is attending talks in London rather than Rubio and Witkoff.
The U.S. State Department blamed the last-minute cancellation on logistical complications, nevertheless it was clear the choice caught the British Foreign Office off-guard, the BBC reported.
American diplomats as an alternative turned their attention to Moscow, where Witkoff is about to meet with Putin for the fourth time, as a way of urgency to finish the war mounts.
On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, talking to media on the tarmac of an airport in Agra, India, told reporters that if Ukraine and Russia didn’t agree on a ceasefire deal, his country would turn its back on peace talks.
“We’ve issued a really explicit proposal to each the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say ‘yes’ or for america to walk away from this process,” Vance said.
“We’ve engaged in a unprecedented amount of diplomacy,” he said, explaining that for a deal to be reached, each Russia and Ukraine would likely have to offer up some territory.
Vice-President JD Vance speaks to the media as he departs Agra, India, en path to Jaipur, India, after visiting the Taj Mahal on April 23, 2025.
Kenny Holston / Getty Images
During similar talks last week in Paris, U.S. officials presented a proposal that included allowing Russia to maintain control of occupied Ukrainian territory as a part of a deal, in accordance with a European official aware of the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, The Associated Press said.
Peace talks are ongoing.
— With files from The Associated Press
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