Kiev. 11 years ago, Russia raised Crimea to Ukraine quickly, illegally and without bloodshed. But kyiv – and most of the world – never recognized the annexation of Moscow of the strategic peninsula, which is now a main focus of attempts led by the United States to end the war between those two countries.
The American president Donald Trump lashed out at his Ukrainian counterpart on Wednesday, accusing Volodymir Zelensky of prolonging the “killing field” after he insisted that he will not yield any Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, to Russia as part of a possible peace plan.
“There is nothing to talk about. It is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Trump described Zelensky’s resistance as “very harmful” for conversations.
“No one is asking Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian territory, but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for her 11 years ago when he was delivered to Russia without doing a single shot?” Trump wrote on social networks.
during Trump’s first mandate, the United States said he would never recognize Crimea as Russian.
In 2013-14, a massive popular uprising shook Ukraine for weeks, finally forcing President Pro-Mudú, Victor Yanukovich, to leave office.
With Ukraine mired in chaos, Russian President Vladimir Putin threw himself, sending troops to invade Crimea, a diamond -shaped peninsula in the black Sea that Russia has covered for a long time.
The armed troops appeared in Crimea with uniforms without badges, and Putin soon summoned a vote to join Russia that Ukraine and the West dismissed as illegal.
Russia’s relations with the West fell to its lowest point. The United States, the European Union and other countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and its officials.
The illegal annexation of Crimea by Moscow on March 18, 2014 was only internationally recognized by countries such as North Korea and Sudan. In Russia, he unleashed a wave of patriotism, and “Crimea is ours!” It became a cry of war.
The movement caused Putin’s popularity to shoot. Its approval index, which had decreased to 65 percent in January 2014, rose to 86 percent in June, according to the Levada Center, an independent Russian poll.
Putin has cataloged Crimea as “a sacred place” and has prosecuted those who publicly argue that it is part of Ukraine, particularly to the Tartars of Crimea, who firmly opposed the annexation.
Weeks after annexation, fighting in eastern Ukraine between pro-kremlin militias and kyiv’s forces broke out. Moscow supported the insurgents, although the Kremlin denied supporting them with troops and weapons. There was abundant evidence of the opposite, including the finding of a Dutch court that an air defense system provided by Russia knocked down a Passenger plane from Malaysia Airlines on eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing the 298 people aboard.
The hard line Russians later criticized Putin for not seizing that year that year, arguing that it was easily possible at a time when the government in kyiv was in disorder and its army in ruins.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine continued, intermittently, until February 2022, when Putin launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine.
The unique location of Crimea makes it a strategically important asset, and Russia has spent centuries fighting her.
The Peninsula was home to Turkish -speaking Tartars when the Russian Empire annexed it for the first time in the 18th century. Briefly recovered independence two centuries later before being absorbed by the Soviet Union.
-The Soviet ruler Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both were part of the USSR, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Unification of Moscow and kyiv. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Peninsula became part of the newly independent Ukraine.
Russia kept a foot at the door, however: its black sea fleet had a base in the city of Sevastopol, and Crimea – as part of Ukraine – continued to host it.
By the time Russia attached to it in 2014, it had been part of Ukraine for 60 years and had become part of the country’s identity.
Zelensky has promised to recover her and said that Russia “will not be able to steal” the peninsula.
For either side, Crimea’s possession is key to control over activities in the Black Sea, a critical corridor for the grain of the world, among other goods.
Before its large -scale invasion, Moscow deployed troops and weapons in Crimea, allowing Russian forces to quickly seize large parts of southern Ukraine in the first weeks of the war.
A high Russian military official said later that ensuring a land corridor from Russia to Crimea keeping the occupied parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporiyia and Jersón de Ukranian regions was among the key objectives of what Kremlin insisted on calling its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Before the invasion, Zelensky focused on diplomatic efforts to recover Crimea, but after the Russian troops crossed the border, kyiv began to contemplate publicly to resume the peninsula by force.
The Peninsula soon became a battlefield, with Ukraine by launching drone attacks and bombing it to try to evict Moscow control over the territory.
The attacks went to the fleet of the Russian Black Sea there, as well as to ammunition deposits, aviation fields and the precious active of Putin: the Kerch bridge that joins Crimea with Russia, which was attacked in October 2022 and again in July 2023.
The United States Vice President JD Vance said this week that Washington “issued a very explicit proposal to both Russians and Ukrainians, and it is time for them to say ‘yes’ or that the United States withdraw from this process.”
He told reporters during a visit to India that it was “a very fair proposal” that “will freeze the territorial lines at a level close to where they are today”, although both parties would have to give up some territory they currently have. He did not provide details.
Although Trump said “nobody” is asking Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian territory, it is not clear if the United States proposal would see Washington recognize it as such, what would be a reversion of years of their own foreign policy.
In 2017, Trump’s then Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, declared in a meeting that the main diplomat of Russia also attended: “We will never accept the occupation and attempt to annexed Crimea by Russia.” The following year, his successor, Mike Pompeo, reiterated that the United States rejected the attempt to annexation.
Zelensky on Wednesday pointed out Pompeo’s statement in an X post, adding: “We are absolutely sure that our partners, in particular the United States, will act in line with their firm decisions.”
Putin, however, listed the recognition of Ukraine of Crimea as part of Russia among the demands of Moscow for Peace in June 2024. Those also include that Ukraine yields four regions that Russia annexed illegally in 2022, abandons its attempt to join NATO, maintain the country’s non -nuclear status, restricts its military force and protects the interests of the interest of the roller speech population.
kyiv has refused to give territory as an unacceptable starting point.
Russia currently controls approximately 20% of the Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, so any agreement that freezes the lines more or less where Moscow would benefit.
