Donald Trump is ready to recognise Crimea as Russian soil in a major blow to Volodymyr Zelensky’s post-war hopes, according to fresh reports.
Sources familiar with negotiations have revealed that formally handing the territory to Vladimir Putin, 11 years after his troops invaded it, is set to form part of a broader peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
But Bloomberg reports that a final decision on a handover has not yet taken place – and Russia’s top dogs have warned a deal is still a way off.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week that it was not easy to agree with the US on the key parts of a possible peace deal – and vowed Russia would never again allow itself to depend economically on the West.
Donald Trump is reportedly ready to recognise Crimea as Russian soil
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Lavrov said that Russia’s position had been set out clearly by Putin in June 2024, when the Russian premier demanded that Ukraine drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.
“We’re talking about the rights of the people who live on these lands. That is why these lands are dear to us. And we cannot give them up, allowing people to be kicked out of there,” Lavrov said.
Putin’s forces currently control just under a fifth of Ukraine – including Crimea and parts of four other regions Moscow now claims are part of Russia.
Lavrov also praised Trump’s “common sense”, and hailed him for saying that American support for Ukraine’s bid to join Nato military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.
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Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had stressed that Russia ‘cannot give up’ Crimea earlier this week
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And today, Trump himself hinted the US could walk away from negotiations if a deal is not reached quickly.
The deal-making President vowed he did not want to walk away from talks to end the war – but said “we will take a pass” if parties “make it difficult” to do so.
“We’re going to get it [the war] stopped, ideally,” Trump said. “Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re going to just take a pass.”
“But hopefully we won’t have to do that. And Marco [Rubio, Secretary of State]… is right in saying it, we want to see it end.
“Think of it – every day, a lot of people are being killed… as they play games.
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The US could walk away from negotiations if a deal is not reached quickly
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“So we’re not going to take that and… I think we have a good chance of solving the problem,” he said, and vowed there remained a “very good chance” of getting a deal.
Trump’s remarks came shortly before Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister revealed that Kyiv and Washington signed a “memorandum of intent” over a long-discussed minerals deal.
Such a memorandum is the last step before the deal is officially signed.
If and when it is, the US would be handed access to Ukraine’s vast natural gas resources
Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister, said the document “paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine”.
