"Crimea will stay with Russia," Trump insists as Ukraine war rages on
FILE-President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump gave a recent interview saying that "Crimea will stay with Russia," as Trump attempts to pressure Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it’s still under attack.
Trump spoke to reporters on Friday as he left the White House to attend Pope Francis’ funeral telling them there’s no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.
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The president promised to meet with foreign leaders while in Rome, and said it was "possible" he could meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump seeks end to Russia-Ukraine war
Dig deeper:
President Donald Trump made the comments about Crimea in a Time magazine interview on Tuesday. Trump has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of continuing the war by opposing negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But some European leaders are claiming that Putin is stalling in the negotiations and wants to claim additional Ukrainian land while his army has an advantage on the battlefield.
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Zelenskyy has stated multiple times during the ongoing war that recognizing occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
The Associated Press reported that senior U.S. officials have warned that the Trump administration may give up attempts to stop the Russia-Ukraine war if the two sides do not come to a settlement. That may possibly mean stopping critical U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
What is Crimea?
The backstory:
Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while President Barack Obama was in office, years before Russia's full invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022.
Russia’s attacks continue
Big picture view:
Russia has continued its attack on Ukraine. A drone hit an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said Friday, a day after Trump criticized Putin for a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv that killed 12 people and injured 87.
According to the Associated Press, a child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the nighttime drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
The AP noted that Russian forces fired 103 drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no deaths.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press, which cites comments from President Donald Trump and offers background on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.