President Trump outlined two of the parameters for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue peace with Russia ahead of a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Monday: Give up Crimea and stop pursuing NATO membership.
“[Zelensky] can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday evening. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE.”
Monday’s meeting follows Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
How Crimea became flashpoint
Crimea, a diamond-shaped peninsula along the northern side of the Black Sea, has long been a favorite vacation spot for Russians. It became a global flashpoint of Russian aggression in 2014, when Russian forces occupied the region in a precursor to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its Eastern European neighbor in 2022.
After Russian troops moved in to seize control of the Crimean Peninsula in early 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin called a disputed referendum in Crimea that ultimately paved the way for Moscow to claim annexation. The vote was not recognized by Kyiv and most other countries.
“This referendum is contrary to Ukraine’s constitution, and the international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law,” then-President Obama’s administration said in a statement at the time.
The White House also said Obama told Putin directly the referendum “would never be recognized by the United States and the international community.”
The United States and allies responded with sanctions on Moscow and its officials.
But Trump has frequently blamed Obama for not acting more forcefully to stop the takeover a decade ago.
“There wasn’t a bullet fired; there was no fighting; there was no anything,” Trump told reporters in April. “They just handed it over. Now they say, ‘Well can you get it back?'”
Obama discussed in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2023 the “more complicated” dynamics in Ukraine at the time of Russia’s invasion.
“There’s a reason why there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, because Crimea was full of a lot of Russian speakers and there was some sympathy to the view that Russia was representing its interests,” the former president said.
Why Crimea matters to both sides
The coveted peninsula is positioned as a major port corridor on the Black Sea and has been an ongoing point of contention since the fall of the Soviet Union.
After the peninsula became part of independent Ukraine in 1991, the Kremlin kept its Black Sea Fleet base at the seaport city of Sevastopol, which helped facilitate the 2014 takeover.
According to Kremlin estimates, Crimea has about 2 million residents, and Sevastopol, which has Russian federal city status on the peninsula, is home to about 550,000 people.
Putin has included Ukraine’s recognition of Crimea as part of Russia among the demands for a peace treaty.
Zelensky posted an update on social media early Monday about Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine, stressing “Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war.”
“The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: ‘Stop,'” he added.
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