Trump pressures Zelenskyy over Crimea red line

Just days after Vladimir Putin offered to freeze the war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for rejecting any recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump described Ukraine’s situation as “dire.”

“He can have Peace, or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” he wrote.

The leader went further:

“We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”

Trump was responding to a remark by Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday. The Ukrainian president told reporters that Ukraine would “not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea”—the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 but still internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory.

“There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution,” Zelenskyy said.

That phrase—“no cards to play”—recalls a tense moment earlier this year.

On February 28, Trump and Zelenskyy clashed during a meeting at the White House. Trump accused Zelenskyy of stalling peace. The meeting ended abruptly without a signed minerals agreement. Within days, Washington suspended military aid (March 3) and paused intelligence sharing (March 5), raising pressure on Kyiv.

Vice President JD Vance echoed that pressure this week, warning it was time for both sides to accept a U.S. peace proposal “or for the United States to walk away.” Speaking in India, he backed a territorial freeze “close to where [the lines] are today” and called for “a long-term diplomatic settlement.”

According to the Financial Times, Putin told Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia could drop claims to parts of four eastern Ukrainian regions still held by Kyiv. But on Crimea, there was no movement.
It stays with Russia.

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