Speaking in an interview with Time magazine, US President Donald Trump stated that the Crimean Peninsula, which is currently owned by Russia, "will stay" with Russia as negotiations to end the war in Ukraine become stronger day by day.
Trump attributed the war to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and accused him of initiating the war and being responsible for "millions of deaths." Trump also faulted Zelensky for not leaving Crimea, as if that was a feasible solution to the war. "With that being said, will they be able to get it back? They've had their Russians.". 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. But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump,” Trump remarked, according to AP.
US President Trump went on to say that Zelensky "knows" that Crimea will remain in Russian possession, and that it's been Russian for a very long time. The US President further made it plain that Ukraine would never become part of NATO, the US-led military alliance, in the future. According to him, Ukraine's desire to be part of NATO was one of the main reasons for the war to have erupted.
"I don't think they will ever be able to join NATO," Trump said in the magazine interview. "I think that's been — day one, I think that's been, I think what precipitated the war in the beginning was when they started discussing joining NATO. Had that not come up, there would have been a much greater chance that it would not have," he went on.
In ongoing talks to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, the Trump administration has proposed that Ukraine would not be accepted into NATO but could "pursue" EU membership. The US, Reuters reports, also proposed "de jure" recognition of Russian control over Crimea and "de facto" recognition of Russian control over most of Luhansk and land in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson—land held by Russia since the beginning of the war.
The offers vary from a "permanent" truce, economic assistance and mineral deals, and financial compensation for the "full reconstruction" of Ukraine. The US has also offered to lift sanctions on Russia, imposed in 2014.
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