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U.S. President Donald Trump says “Crimea will stay with Russia.” It's a definitive statement about the need for Ukraine to cede territory to end the war

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia," the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.

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

Trump made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Trump has been accusing Zelenskyy of 

 by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western European leaders, however, have accused Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.

The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration weighs its options. Senior U.S. officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to a settlement. That could potentially mean a halt of crucial U.S. military aid for Ukraine.

 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-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.

“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.”

Zelenskyy has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian is a red line for his country.

Speaking to reporters Friday as he left the White House to attend 

 in Rome, Trump said there is no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.

“I just want to do it as fast as possible,” Trump said. Negotiators are “pretty close” to a deal, he said.

He promised to meet with foreign leaders while in Rome, and said it was “possible” he could meet with Zelenskyy.

 met with Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February. Witkoff's trip coincided with the death of a senior Russian military officer in 

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, who attended the talks, said the meeting lasted three hours and was “constructive” and “useful.” Further talks are expected, he said.

Putin and Witkoff discussed, “in particular, the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine,” according to Ushakov. Delegations from the two countries last met in the weeks following Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbor.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he agreed with Trump’s opinion that negotiations “are moving in the right direction.”

Russia, he said, is “ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points — elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned.” He declined to provide further details, according to excerpts of the interview that will air Sunday.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukraine. A drone struck an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said Friday, a day after 

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.

Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy 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 casualties.

Russian forces used Thursday's attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, Zelenskyy said late Thursday.

“When the maximum of our forces was focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,” he wrote on Telegram.

Zelenskyy noted Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued.

, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, 

 and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.

Politics and Government News

The Associated Press

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U.S. President Donald Trump says “Crimea will stay with Russia.” It's a definitive statement about the need for Ukraine to cede territory to end the war


Trump says 'Crimea will stay with Russia' as he seeks end to war in Ukraine

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