Trump said Zelensky understood that Crimea would remain part of Russia.

As a result of the conflict settlement, Crimea will remain part of Russia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky understands this. This was stated by US President Donald Trump.

"Crimea will remain part of Russia. And Zelensky understands this, and everyone understands that he [Crimea] has been with them for a long time," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published on April 25.

Also, according to the American leader, Ukraine is unlikely to ever join NATO and, in general, "Ukraine's desire to join the alliance led to the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine."

"I don't think they [Ukraine] will ever be able to join NATO. I think that was the reason for the beginning [of the conflict] when they started talking about joining NATO. If they hadn't talked about it, there would have been a much higher chance that it wouldn't have started," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine.

They think destructively: Europe and Ukraine are disrupting Trump's new plan

Why didn't the London high-level settlement meeting take place

On April 23, American leader Donald Trump said that the United States is experiencing more difficulties in negotiations with Ukraine than with Russia, with which agreements have been practically reached. In addition, according to him, Zelensky's statement about the refusal to recognize Crimea as the territory of the Russian Federation hinders the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

On April 24, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin supported Trump's statement that Ukraine had lost Crimea many years ago.