Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, blaming the Ukrainian president’s refusal to accept Russian occupation of Crimea for failure to end the war. Trump said in a Truth Social post that a deal was “very close” but Zelensky’s refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict — which began with Russia’s invasion — “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field.'” The comments came as envoys from Washington, Kyiv, and European nations wrapped up talks in Britain.
Ahead of Trump’s broadside, Vice President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a peace deal where Russia would get to keep already occupied swaths of Ukraine, which include Crimea. Zelensky rejected this as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution. That in turn prompted Trump’s outburst in which he accused Zelensky of being “inflammatory” and taking a position “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia.”
Zelensky has “no cards” and “can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump wrote. Trump said Crimea — a lush Black Sea peninsula with longtime major Soviet and Russian naval facilities — “was lost years ago” and “is not even a point of discussion.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said later Wednesday that Trump’s patience was “running very thin.” Trump wants peace but “you need both sides of the war willing to do that. And unfortunately, President Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction,” she said. “President Zelensky has been trying to litigate this peace negotiation in the press, and that’s unacceptable,” Leavitt added.
The intense US pressure on Ukraine to accept the terms comes after Trump regularly boasted on the campaign trail that he would resolve the conflict in 24 hours. He has put no equivalent visible pressure on Russia while dangling a lifting of massive US economic sanctions against Moscow if the fighting stops.
Vance earlier gave the fullest public explanation of the US plan so far, saying the deal would “freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today.” “The Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” Vance said while on a trip to India. Freezing the frontlines would mean Ukraine losing huge areas to Russia. The vice president did not explain what territory Russia — which seized Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion targeting the rest of the country in 2022 — would have to give up.
Washington has “issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians” and “it’s time for them to either say ‘yes,’ or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance said. Growing speculation over Washington being ready to recognize Russian rule over Crimea as a sweetener to get Moscow to stop its invasion has alarmed European capitals. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office told AFP that “Ukraine’s territorial integrity and European aspirations are very strong requirements for Europeans.” A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters, “it has to be up to Ukraine to decide its future.”
Top Ukrainian officials including the foreign and defense ministers met Wednesday in London with representatives from Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week.
The latest diplomatic wrangling comes after a fresh wave of Russian air strikes that shattered a brief Easter truce. A Russian drone strike on a bus transporting workers in the southeastern city of Marganets killed nine people and wounded at least 30 more, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said Wednesday. Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Odesa. In light of the attacks, Zelensky called for an “immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire.” In Russia, one person was reported wounded by shelling in the Belgorod region.
© 2024 AFP
