U.S. President Donald Trump is blaming Volodymyr Zelenskyy for delaying the opportunity of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, arguing that the Ukrainian president may finish the battle if he agreed to formally hand over Crimea to Russia as a part of a proposed peace deal.
“No one is asking Zelenskyy to acknowledge Crimea as Russian Territory, but when he desires Crimea, why didn’t they combat for it eleven years in the past when it was handed over to Russia with no shot being fired?” the president wrote on Fact Social in a prolonged put up on Wednesday.
Donald Trump stated in a Fact Social put up on Wednesday, April 23, that Volodymyr Zelenskyy ought to hand over Crimea to Russia to safe a ceasefire deal.
Donald Trump / Fact 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 happened after former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych did not signal an settlement aligning Ukraine extra carefully with the EU — as a substitute selecting to strengthen ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin — supplied Russia with the chance to grab the realm. Inside simply two months, Putin had declared it Russian territory.
The strategically situated area offers Russia entry to quite a few ocean routes within the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans.
It is usually house to priceless vitality provides, together with offshore oil and gasoline shops within the Black Sea; the invasion granted Russia entry to a few of these very important belongings.
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Taking management of Crimea was additionally a political transfer and an “try by Russia to make any western integration with Ukraine a lot much less enticing,” Emily Ferris, a analysis fellow on the Royal United Companies Institute, defined in a video on the Imperial War Museum’s website, including 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 settlement.
“There may be nothing to speak about — it’s our land, the land of the Ukrainian individuals,” Zelenskyy stated. He doubled down on Wednesday, telling media, “Stopping the killing is activity primary.”
His preliminary rebuttal got here a day earlier than high-level talks set for Wednesday in London between U.S., European and Ukrainian officers had been downgraded after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and particular 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 Division blamed the last-minute cancellation on logistical problems, however it was clear the choice caught the British Overseas Workplace off-guard, the BBC reported.
American diplomats as a substitute turned their consideration to Moscow, the place Witkoff is ready to meet with Putin for the fourth time, as a way of urgency to finish the battle mounts.
On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, talking to media on the tarmac of an airport in Agra, India, instructed reporters that if Ukraine and Russia did not agree on a ceasefire deal, his nation would flip its again on peace talks.
“We’ve issued a really specific proposal to each the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to both say ‘sure’ or for the USA to stroll away from this course of,” Vance stated.
“We’ve engaged in a unprecedented quantity of diplomacy,” he stated, explaining that for a deal to be reached, each Russia and Ukraine would doubtless have to surrender 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 Pictures
Throughout similar talks last week in Paris, U.S. officers introduced a proposal that included permitting Russia to maintain management of occupied Ukrainian territory as a part of a deal, in accordance with a European official acquainted with the matter who was not licensed to remark publicly and spoke on the situation of anonymity, The Related Press stated.
Peace talks are ongoing.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
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