The Scoop
The Trump administration is considering recognizing Ukraine’s Crimea region as Russian territory as part of any future agreement to end Moscow’s war on Kyiv, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Administration officials have also discussed the possibility of having the US urge the United Nations to do the same, according to both people. Such a request would align the Trump administration with the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long seen Crimea as his nation’s territory.
The administration’s previously unreported openness to those options comes as Trump prepares for a Tuesday call with Putin, with a potential 30-day ceasefire deal on the table. Trump told reporters Sunday evening aboard Air Force One that negotiators had already discussed “dividing up certain assets.”
Trump has not formally made any decisions, and the possible Crimea moves are two of a multitude of options being floated as his administration pushes for an end to the war.
The White House declined to comment. In a statement to Semafor after publication of this story, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said that the administration has “made no such commitments and we will not negotiate this deal through the media.”
“Just two weeks ago, both Ukraine and Russia were miles apart on a ceasefire agreement, and we are now closer to a deal thanks to the leadership of President Trump. The goal remains the same: stop the killing and find a peaceful resolution to this conflict,” Hughes added.
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Trump administration officials have talked openly about the need for Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia in order to bring the three-year war to an end, and the president himself has said in the past that he’s willing to consider Crimea to be part of Russia. But since Trump took office, his advisers haven’t publicly divulged many specifics about what they might offer to Putin.
Ukrainians have “suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly, and it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week. “But that’s the only way this is going to end to prevent more suffering.”
A push by the US to formally recognize Crimea — which Russia invaded and illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — as Russian land would likely draw tremendous pushback from Europe as well as from Kyiv, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has firmly resisted territorial concessions. The US, Ukraine, and much of the international community have recognized Crimea as Ukrainian, despite Russia’s occupation of the peninsula.
At the same time, security experts have serious doubts about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake Crimea through military means. Even Zelenskyy acknowledged last year that the territory could only be restored to Ukraine through diplomacy, something Russia is unlikely to agree to.
Trump first floated the prospect of recognizing Crimea as Russian territory years before Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While running for president in 2016 — and subsequently, during his first term — the president repeatedly said he’d “look at” whether the US would move to recognize it.
“The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were,” Trump said during a 2018 interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “And you have to look at that, also.”
Notable
- During the presidential campaign, Trump “privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory,” The Washington Post reported last April.
- National security advisor Mike Waltz suggested Sunday that it’s unrealistic for Ukraine to get all of its territory back from Russia: “Are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea?”
- The Trump administration is withdrawing the US from a multinational group investigating those responsible for the Ukraine invasion, The New York Times reported.