President Trump issued a stark warning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, saying Kyiv’s leader was in a “dire” situation and “can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.”
Trump, 78, was responding to Zelensky telling reporters Tuesday that “Ukraine will not legally recognize the [Russian] occupation of Crimea” — a key part of a US-proposed peace plan under discussion in London Wednesday, and a condition that has long been a red line for Kyiv.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” the president seethed on Truth Social.
“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”
Trump a decade ago criticized Obama for not intervening when Russia annexed Crimea. Kyiv has been working since 2014 to get its territory back and expel Russians from eastern Ukraine.
Now, the US is proposing formally recognizing the Black Sea peninsula as Russian territory — which would represent a major change to American foreign policy, a senior administration official told The Post.
“There’s a doctrine out there called the Welles Declaration, that goes back to 1940, that says that the United States will not acknowledge the occupation of a foreign land by another nation,” the official said.
“We don’t say that this is your result, but we acknowledge the fact that it’s annexed physically, but you don’t own the land you’re on.”
That doctrine, declared 85 years ago, was created to push back against the Soviet Union’s annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The US was the leader in influencing other nations to do the same, and more than 50 nations followed suit.
A US official insisted to The Post Friday that the US has not dropped its commitment to the doctrine “at all,” though that would change if Trump’s peace plan was adopted.
Here’s what Russia and Ukraine each get in Trump’s ‘final offer’ peace deal
What Russia gets
- Formal US recognition of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula as Russian territory — a major departure from Washington’s longstanding Welles doctrine, which refuses to acknowledge annexed territory as belonging to the seizing power.
- “De facto” recognition of Russia’s occupation of four regions in eastern Ukraine, meaning the US would acknowledge Moscow controls the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts while formally considering them Ukrainian land.
- A pledge that the US would not support Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.
- Lifting sanctions to boost Russia’s economy, which has struggled throughout its war on Ukraine.
- Opportunities for more economic cooperation with the US, especially in the energy and industrial fields.
What Ukraine gets
- Assistance from European military forces as “a robust security guarantee” following a cease-fire. The US would not be involved in this measure.
- Russia would return a small portion of Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast currently occupied by Moscow.
- Navigation rights in the Dnieper River, which runs along the front lines.
- Assistance in post-war rebuilding, though it is unclear from where that funding would come.
Trump again refrained in Wednesday’s message from criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress on a peace agreement.
Throughout the attempted peace process, the president has not issued any coercive punishments to Moscow to bring them to the table, but briefly cut intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to force them into compliance.
Instead, Trump blamed Zelensky for speaking out against the acknowledgment of Crimea by the US.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump went on. “He has nothing to boast about!”
The president also referenced in his post a notorious Feb. 28 shouting match in the Oval Office between himself, Zelensky and Vice President JD Vance.
“I have nothing to do with Russia, but have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever,” the wrote.
“The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”
