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President Donald Trump has said that Ukraine will not be able to reclaim Crimea nor become a member of NATO if Kyiv wishes to sign a peace deal with Russia.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
Zelensky is due to meet Trump in the White House later on Monday, along with several European leaders and the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. It follows Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Trump appeared to blame former President Barack Obama for Ukraine’s loss of Crimea, and said there would be “no going into NATO by Ukraine” in any agreement brokered by the U.S. to end the war.
“No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” Trump said.
Russia annexed Crimea, the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine, in 2014, when it propped up separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas and Luhansk regions. Moscow’s control over Crimea is not internationally recognized, and Kyiv has vowed to recover the territory.
Russia then annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, months after launching its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
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This is a developing story. More to follow.