Trump says 'Crimea will stay with Russia'; dismisses Ukraine joining NATO
He criticised Zelensky for refusing to cede Crimea as a way to resolve the conflict with Russia
US President Donald Trump, in an interview with Time magazine, stated that the occupied Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine "will stay" with Russia, as efforts to end the war in Ukraine intensify.
Trump blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war and for being responsible for "millions of deaths." He also criticised Zelensky for refusing to cede Crimea as a way to resolve the conflict with Russia.
"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," AP quoted Trump as saying in the interview.
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The US president also claimed that Zelensky "understands" that Crimea will be in control of Russia in the future, "and everybody understands that it's been with them for a long time."
Trump on Ukraine joining NATO
The 78-year-old said that he does not envision Ukraine joining NATO, the US-led military alliance, in the future and added further that Kyiv's aspiration to join the bloc was one of the reasons for the outbreak of war.
"I don't think they'll ever be able to join NATO," Trump said in the interview.
"I think that's been — from day one, I think that's been, that's I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren't brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn't have started," Trump added.
US proposals at talks
As part of talks to end the Ukraine war, the Trump administration has proposed that Ukraine will not join NATO, but "may pursue" membership of the European Union, Reuters quoted the text of the proposals on Friday.
The US has also offered "de jure" recognition of Russian control of Crimea and "de facto" recognition of Russian control of all of Luhansk and parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson. Russia occupied most of these areas in southern and eastern Ukraine after the outbreak of war.
In addition to a "permanent" ceasefire, other important proposals include implementing the economic cooperation/minerals agreement and providing financial compensation for the "full reconstruction" of Ukraine. "Sanctions on Russia resulting from this conflict since 2014 will be removed."
