Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to meet US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office on August 18 with a phalanx of European leaders, the American President turned pressure on his counterpart, suggesting he should give up claim to some territories occupied by Russia. It was accompanied by a stern admonishment, “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
But there was no matching ultimatum to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump held a summit on August 15.
In his Truth Social post on August 17, setting pre-conditions, Trump said, “No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and no going into NATO by Ukraine.” Trump was referring to the Russian occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 without military resistance while Barack Obama was the President, and implying that in a settlement of the war, Kyiv would have to give up claims to it.
It could also be interpreted that Russia may give up some of its claims to other territories that it seized after the invasion that started in February 2022, in return for keeping Crimea. Russia now occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory.
Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who was at Trump’s summit, told CNN, “The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions” that Moscow has laid claims to.
