President Trump’s growing frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to a head on Wednesday. At the center of the tension: a statement from Zelensky demanding full Russian withdrawal — including from Crimea — before even sitting down for peace talks.
While the Ukrainian leader remains steadfast in his refusal to negotiate without a complete rollback of Russian control, critics argue that this kind of rigid posture may be stalling real progress and prolonging the war’s human cost.
The Trump team has been exploring more pragmatic solutions to break the deadlock — one of which includes floating the idea of formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory. It’s a bold play meant to strip away one of the biggest barriers to getting both sides to the table.
As the New York Post explains, Trump’s dire warning to the Ukrainian president included a particularly ominous comment: settle for a negotiated peace or risk “losing the entire 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.
In a bid to end the grinding, trench-style war in Ukraine, the Trump administration is preparing to upend more than eight decades of U.S. foreign policy.
“There’s a doctrine out there called the Welles Declaration, that goes back to 1940, that says the United States will not acknowledge the occupation of a foreign land by another nation,” a senior administration official told the Post. “That’s on the table.”
The Welles Doctrine, first invoked to condemn the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, has long guided America’s refusal to recognize territorial seizures. Reversing or softening that position would mark a historic shift — one aimed at pressuring Ukraine and Russia toward a negotiated ceasefire.
The move, while politically explosive, is rooted in realpolitik. Crimea has been effectively under Russian control since 2014, and there’s an argument to be made that clinging to pre-2014 maps may be standing in the way of saving lives today.
Predictably, the proposal sparked outrage in Kyiv. For Ukrainians, Crimea isn’t just land — it’s a Maryland size chunk of heritage, identity and pride.
But an important question remains: At what point does principled resistance become strategic blindness?
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This is getting ridiculous. Never a word against Putin. It’s like Trump is petrified of him, and instead turns his wrath on Zelensky. Put himself in Zelensky’s shoes. What would happen if Putin grabbed a piece of America? Would we settle for giving it up to him just to settle for peace? I think not. Zelensky is defending his land as a patriot. Trump’s whole theme is patriotism. Russia in all of forms of Communism and dictatorships has always been let off easily. They pushed the Korean War, Vietnam, the Irno Curtain, and the Communist/Socialist movement in this country. Yet, we kiss up to them. Putin could rob Fort Knox and we would blame other culprits. Where do we draw the line with him…when he invades Alaska? He invades Ukraine, who didn’t initiate anything, takes over Crimea, and kills thousands of people unnecessarily, while the best we can do is to drop a few bombs on Yemen. We went into Iraq because we felt we were powerful enough not to be humiliated, but even avoided Syria, Iran, and ISIS. We woke up with the supposedly surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor and The WTC, but Pearl Harbor was a jolt after Japan conquered half of Asia and Europe was Hitlerland. Will it take attacks on American territory before we admit that Putin is the second coming of Uncle Adolph? Putin is not going to stop with Ukraine any more than Hitler stopped with Sudetenland