Trump says 'Crimea will stay with Russia' in latest interview

“Crimea will stay with Russia,” US President Donald Trump has said in his latest interview published Friday, in the latest example of the US leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end Russia’s war, now in its fourth year.

“Zelenskyy understands that,” Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “and everybody understands that it’s been with (Russia) for a long time.”

Trump made the comments to Time magazine conducted on Tuesday but published on Friday.

Earlier this week, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine.

It was unilaterally seized by Russia in 2014, while US President Barack Obama was in office, years before the full-scale invasion that began in early 2022.

So far, Kyiv has rejected any peace deal that would not include a complete Russian withdrawal from Crimea.

“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,” Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment on Ukraine.

A drone struck an apartment building in the south-eastern city of Pavlohrad, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said on Friday.

That strike comes a day after Trump issued a rare rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling him to “stop” aerial attacks on Ukraine after 12 people were killed in Kyiv.

Trump said the strikes were not necessary and criticised their “very bad timing”.

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.

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 an agreement.

That could potentially mean a halt to crucial US military support for Ukraine.

Trump’s frustration is growing as his efforts to forge a deal between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.

The Kremlin released a short video of Putin and Witkoff greeting each other. “How are you, Mr President?” Witkoff could be heard saying. “Fine, just fine, thank you,” Putin responded in rare remarks in English, as the two shook hands.

Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy for international cooperation Kirill Dmitriev joined the two at the table for the talks.

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