Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has doubled down on Crimea, rejecting any suggestion Ukraine will hand over the region to the Kremlin after a beaming Vladimir Putin welcomed Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff for peace talks.
Yesterday a video published by Russian state media, showed Putin welcoming the US negotiator exchanging a few words in English before they discussed a peace plan for Ukraine.
Putin, who is understood to be fluent in English, rarely speaks the language and has only done so on a few public occasions. The Kremlin later said they had been in talks of a ‘possibility’ of a direct ceasefire.
The talks went ahead despite a Russian general being killed in a Moscow car bomb attack, with the country laying blame on Ukraine. In turn, Ukraine outraged by a Kremlin strike on Kyiv that left 12 dead.
However Ukraine remains fearful that Trump could force it to hand over Crimea – a Black Sea annexed seized by Russia in 2014 – with the US president previously asserting: ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’.
But Zelensky has remained steadfast that the territory belongs to the Ukrainian people, asserting that their ‘position is unchanged’, later adding: ‘The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories… belong to Ukraine.’
Trump wants to broker a truce between Moscow and Kyiv, but has failed to extract any major concessions from Putin despite several rounds of negotiation. He has threatened to walk away from talks if he does not see progress towards a ceasefire.
Witkoff and Putin’s meeting yesterday came just hours after a car exploded in the Moscow region, killing Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for what appeared to be a deliberate attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has doubled down on Crimea, rejecting any suggestion Ukraine will hand over the region to the Kremlin
It comes after Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin yesterday, with the duo smiling and shaking hands
Pictured: Young girls crying at a site of a destroyed house following a deadly Russian strike on Thursday
Friends of Danylo Hudya, 17, who was killed in the strike, gather together at the remains of a house
‘There are reasons to believe that Ukraine’s special services were involved in the murder,’ Russia‘s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. Ukraine did not immediately comment.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Witkoff and Putin had held a ‘constructive’ conversation, including ‘a discussion on the possibility of renewing direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine’.
Trump criticised the Kremlin on Thursday after a drone attack on Kyiv killed at least 12 people, and posted on social media: ‘Vladimir, STOP!’ and added ‘Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!’
When asked how he would respond if Russia did not accept a deal, Trump said Thursday: ‘I won’t be happy, let me put it that way. Things will happen.’
But Trump also said there had been significant progress in peace talks.
‘This next few days is going to be very important. Meetings are taking place right now,’ Trump told reporters on Thursday. ‘I think we’re going to make a deal … I think we’re getting very close.’
The US has not revealed the details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea – a peninsula annexed by the Kremlin in 2014 – in exchange for peace.
Trump was quoted as saying in a TIME magazine interview published on Friday: ‘Crimea will stay with Russia.’
‘Zelensky understands that,’ he continued, referring to the Ukrainian president. ‘And everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.’
Kostiantyn Bycheck, 35, who was injured in Thursday’s airstrike, being left with several scars
Plans drawn up by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff call for US recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow seized and annexed in 2014
Russian media circulated the purported scene of the explosion in Moscow region on Friday
The moment of the explosion said to have killed Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces
Trump added: ‘They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea… But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.’
Leaked documents highlighting the vastly different proposals from the US and Europe for resolving the conflict show the White House far more willing to concede Ukrainian territory to Moscow.
Plans drawn up by Witkoff call for US recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, as well as the removal of sanctions currently in place.
It also proposes de facto recognition of Russia’s hold on areas of southern and eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces control.
While Trump criticised the Kremlin on Thursday after a drone attack on Kyiv killed 12 people, Zelensky has revealed it may be one of the reasons he may be unable to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday.
It would be the first time the Ukrainian President would have come face to face with Trump following their explosive exchange in the White House last February.
