Trump said Zelensky understood that Crimea belongs to Russia
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has come to the realization that Crimea will remain part of Russia after the end of hostilities, American leader Donald Trump said in an interview with Time magazine on April 25.
"Crimea will remain with Russia. And Zelensky understands this, and now everyone understands that he (the Crimean Peninsula. — Ed.) was with them (Russians. — ed.) for a long time," said the US president.
Trump noted that in the context of the end of the Ukrainian conflict, it is Crimea that everyone mentions first, since Ukraine has been trying to dispute the peninsula's ownership from the very beginning.
"Again, this conflict began under [former US President Barack] To Obama. I call it "the war that should never have happened," the American leader added.
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."
On April 23, Trump noted 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.
At the same time, it was reported that the United States was outraged by Ukraine's refusal to recognize Crimea as Russian territory. It was clarified that representatives of the American delegation canceled their visit to London for the next stage of negotiations on resolving the Ukrainian crisis amid "anger in Washington" due to Kiev's unwillingness to agree to the official recognition of Crimea as part of the Russian Federation.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on April 24 that the Kremlin supported Trump's statement that Ukraine had lost Crimea many years ago.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
