By James Johnson
24/04/2025
Source
There is a saying: as American as apple pie, meaning typically American.
Does Trump seem to be trying to apply this idiom to Russia?
The Crimea is an internationally recognised part of the Ukraine and is not an object of negotiation. Negotiating without Ukraine’s interests does not mean peace, but a new war. History is distorted by the myth of the ‘unarmed surrender of Crimea’. Politically, militarily and morally, Ukraine has strong positions.
After the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would not recognise Russian control of Crimea, US President Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace negotiations.
In an op-ed for Truth Social, Trump claimed that a deal to end the war is “very close”, but that by refusing to accept US terms, Zelenskyy is “doing nothing but prolonging the conflict”.
Earlier, US Deputy Secretary of State JD Vance outlined the US vision for an agreement, saying it would “freeze the territorial lines near where they are today”.
Ukraine has long said it will not give up Crimea, a southern peninsula it illegally annexed from Russia in 2014.
Russia’s concessions do not deter it, but rather encourage new aggression, as the history of 2014-2022 has shown.
The imposition of peace without the de-occupation of the territories is contrary to international law.
Vance said the deal means Ukraine and Russia ‘will both have to give up some of their current territory’.
Details of what geographical concessions would have to be made have yet to be publicly offered by the administration.
“I just want to see the war end,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if the administration was considering recognising Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
“I don’t have any favourites. I don’t want to have favourites. I want to make a deal,” he said.
Not only would recognition of Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea be politically impossible for Zelensky, it would also be contrary to post-war international legal norms that borders should not be changed by force.
Suggestions that his country give up its claim to the Crimean peninsula have been consistently rejected by Zelensky.
“There is nothing to talk about here. It is against our constitution,” he said.
Recognising Crimea’s illegal annexation can never be a condition for peace. Crimea is not symbolic but key to securing the Black Sea.
Crimea is not just a piece of territory. It is the main Russian military base in the region, shelling Ukrainian cities, blocking trade routes and threatening Romania, Bulgaria and even Turkey.
If Russia holds on to Crimea, it will be able to keep the whole of the Black Sea region in a permanent state of tension.
For NATO and world shipping, the liberation of Crimea is a security guarantee.
While campaigning, Trump repeatedly said he could end the war between Ukraine and Russia in a day, but as he approaches his 100th day in office, a ceasefire remains elusive.
“The president is frustrated,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “His patience is wearing very thin.”
Vance warned – echoing comments made by Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week – that the US would “walk away” from its deal-making role if Russia and Ukraine failed to reach an agreement.
As the pace of diplomacy to end the war quickened, US officials also pulled out of a London meeting to focus on talks in Moscow.
After the withdrawal of Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, the London talks between officials from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine and the US aimed at securing a ceasefire were downgraded this week.
Instead, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, took part in the talks in London, and Witkoff will travel to Russia for a fourth meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
It was not entirely clear why Rubio and Witkoff pulled out of the London talks, British diplomats said.
The US State Dept cited logistical reasons, but it was clear that the decision was made at the eleventh hour and left the Foreign Office out in the cold.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine since Wednesday, after a brief lull over Easter when it halted air strikes.
Putin called a temporary ceasefire for the Easter weekend, but British Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons on Tuesday that British military intelligence had found no evidence of the attacks having stopped.
“Although Putin said he had declared a ceasefire for Easter, he violated it,” he said. “While Putin says he wants peace, he has rejected a full ceasefire; and while Putin says he wants to stop fighting, he continues to stall on negotiating.”
Peace must be based on international law. A lesson of twentieth-century history, which the West learned well, is that concessions to the aggressor without security guarantees only encourage further conflict. If the world accepts the change of borders by force, the consequences could extend far beyond Ukraine: It would set a precedent for Taiwan, the Balkans, the Caucasus and other regions.
A just peace must involve the observance of international law, not the encouragement of its violation.