Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accused of making “very harmful” statements by US President Donald Trump after he resisted giving Crimea to Russia in a potential peace deal.
Before discussions with US, European, and Ukrainian officials on Wednesday in London, President Zelenskyy on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia in any deal. Zelenskyy said, “There is nothing to talk about; it is our country, the country of the Ukrainian people.”
His remarks came after US media reported that the Trump administration was ready to grant Russian-to-Russian recognition of annexed land in Crimea.
Trump accused Zelenskyy of “boasting” that Kyiv would not legally recognize giving Crimea to Russia in a post on the Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
Trump claimed that “this statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia” and that “no shot was fired” was fired upon Russian aggression against the Crimean Peninsula.
Trump argued that it’s because of inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that it’s so difficult to end this war. He has two options: “He can have peace or he can fight for three more years before losing the entire nation.”
US Vice President JD Vance earlier stated to reporters in India that the country has “issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians.”
He continued, “It’s either for them to say “yes” or for the United States to withdraw from this process.”
Any agreement would require land swaps, according to Vance.
He added that allowing the Ukrainians and the Russians to retake some of their current territory would require them both to do so.
London converses
US, Ukrainian, and European officials held “substantive” truce talks in London despite US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s decision to halt his travel.
A broader meeting with foreign ministers from Ukraine, the UK, France, and Germany was replaced by discussions at an official level due to Rubio’s no-show on Wednesday, underscoring the tension between Washington, Kyiv, and its European allies over Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson, Keir Starmer, refrained from expressing his disappointment at Rubio’s abrupt cancellation, saying that the discussions included “substantive technical meetings with European, US, and Ukrainian officials on how to stop the fighting,” which were sparked by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
These discussions today are a significant component of our commitment to achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, the spokesperson said.
Following Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposals that appeared to demand more concessions from Ukraine than Russia, a tentative agreement was at the heart of Wednesday’s discussions.
According to several sources, Witkoff’s proposals included allowing Russia to annex Crimea in 2014, allowing Washington to impose sanctions on Russia, and forbidding Ukraine from joining NATO.
According to Zein Basravi of Al Jazeera, Ukrainians find the US position “unacceptable” in their daily lives. He claimed that “the US would ask an ally to give up sovereign territory of its own after an invasion” is “the Ukraine’s position is that it boggles the mind.”
According to Mattia Nelles, the director of the German-Ukrainian Bureau think tank in Düsseldorf, Europe is now trying to draw red lines and keep Ukraine from “thrown under the bus.”
Source: Aljazeera
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