In a recent interview, US President Donald Trump asserted that Crimea will remain under Russian control, marking another instance of the US leader pressing Ukraine for concessions to resolve the ongoing conflict with Russia, now in its fourth year. Trump indicated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges this reality, noting that Crimea has long been associated with Russia.
The interview, conducted by Time magazine on Tuesday and published on Friday, also featured Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy for allegedly prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Crimea, a strategically significant peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, was annexed by Russia in 2014 during Barack Obama’s presidency, predating the full-scale invasion that began in early 2022. Kyiv continues to reject any peace agreement that fails to include a complete Russian withdrawal from Crimea.
Trump highlighted the historical presence of Russian submarines in Crimea and emphasized that the peninsula’s population predominantly speaks Russian. He remarked that the situation was inherited from the Obama administration, not his own. Meanwhile, Russia has persisted in its military actions against Ukraine.
In the southeastern city of Pavlohrad, a drone attack on an apartment building resulted in three fatalities and ten injuries, according to officials on Friday. This incident followed Trump’s unusual admonition to Putin, urging him to cease aerial assaults on Ukraine after an attack in Kyiv claimed 12 lives. Trump criticized the strikes as unnecessary and poorly timed.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russian forces launched 103 Shahed and decoy drones targeting five Ukrainian regions overnight. Damage to civilian infrastructure was reported in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions, although no casualties were noted.
As the Trump administration evaluates its options, the conflict may be nearing a critical juncture. Senior US officials have cautioned that the administration might soon abandon efforts to halt the war if the parties involved fail to reach an agreement, potentially leading to a cessation of vital US military support for Ukraine. Trump’s frustration has been mounting as his attempts to broker a deal between Moscow and Kyiv have not yet yielded significant progress.
In a related development, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow on Friday, marking their second meeting this month and the fourth since February. The Kremlin released a brief video of Putin and Witkoff exchanging greetings, with Putin responding in English to Witkoff’s inquiry about his well-being. The meeting included Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy for international cooperation Kirill Dmitriev.
