Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ in latest push to end Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump has said in an interview that “Crimea will stay with Russia” as Ukraine comes under mounting pressure to make concessions to end the war between the two countries.

“Zelensky understands that,” Mr Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding: “Everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”

The US president made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Mr Trump has been accusing Mr Zelensky of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while former US president Barack Obama was in office, and years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.

“They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Mr Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”

Bombardment

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment. A drone struck an apartment building in a south-eastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said on Friday, a day after Mr Trump rebuked Russia’s leader for a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.

A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the night-time drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.

Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the north-eastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.

The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration considers its options. Senior US officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to an agreement. That could potentially mean a halt of US military aid for Ukraine.

Amid the peace efforts, Russia pounded Kyiv in an hours-long barrage on Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.

The attack drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from Mr Trump, who has said that a push to end the war is coming to a head.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Mr Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Frustration

Mr Trump’s frustration is growing as his effort to forge a deal between Ukraine and Russia has failed to achieve a breakthrough.

US envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Mr Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.

Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky on Wednesday of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014. Mr Zelensky has repeated many times during the war that recognising occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.

Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky plan to arrive in Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday. It was not immediately clear if they would meet separately.

Meanwhile, a senior Russian military officer was killed by a car bomb near Moscow on Friday, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said.

The attack follows the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on December 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Lt Gen Kirillov.

Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.

Russian forces used Thursday’s attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 620-mile front line, Mr Zelensky said late on Thursday.

“When the maximum of our forces was focused on defence against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,” he wrote on Telegram.

Western European leaders have accused Mr Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.

Mr Zelensky noted on Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a US ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued.

During recent talks, Russia hit the city of Sumy, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, battered Odesa with drones and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.