Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – A Peace Proposal of the Trump administration, including recognizing the Russian authority about Crimea, shocked Ukrainian officials who say that they will not accept formal surrender of the peninsula, although they expect to be temporarily temporarily admitted to the Kremlin,
According to experts, giving up the country that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 is also political and legally impossible. It would require a change in the Ukrainian constitution and a national voice, and it can be considered betrayal. Legislers and the public are strong against the idea.
“It means nothing,” said Oleksandr Merezkho, a legislator at the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy's party. “We will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia.”
In contrast to a territorial concession, a formal surrender would permanently give up Crimea and give up the hope that Ukraine could regain it in the future.
The Ukrainian public largely understands that country must be handed over as part of a truce, because there is no way to resume militarily. Polls indicate that an increasing percentage of the population accepts such an assessment.
But many of the public reports about country concessions has suggested that they are not necessarily permanent, as when Kyiv Burgemeester Vitalii Klitschko recently told the BBC that Ukraine may have to give up land as part of a peace agreement.
Saying otherwise the defeat would effectively admit – a deep unpopular step, especially for Ukrainians who live under the Russian occupation who hope to free and be reunited with their families one day. It would also question the sacrifices of tens of thousands of Ukrainian service members who were killed or injured.
US President Donald Trump underlined the Crimean proposal in an interview that was published in Time Magazine on Friday: “The Crimea stays with Russia. Zenskyy understands that, and everyone understands that it has been with them for a long time.”
His comments offered the newest example of the American leader who put pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it is besieged. Trump has also accused Zolenskyy of extending the war by opposing negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Crim, a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, was seized by Russia years before the full invasion that started in 2022. The Russian takeover followed major protests that the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had expelled, who had refused to sign an agreement with the European Union.
In the run -up to peace talks, Ukrainian officials told the Associated Press for months that they expect Crimean and other Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia to the concessions of KYIV in the case of a deal. But Zenskyy has said on several occasions that the formal vomiting of the country has always been a red line.
Elements of Trump's peace proposal would formally acknowledge the US if Russian and de facto accept the rule of Moscow on occupied Ukrainian areas, according to a high European officer who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions.
Whether the US formally acknowledging the Crimea is from the hands of Zenskyy. But many obstacles prevent the Ukrainian president from doing this, even under enormous pressure. He cannot sign such a proposal unilaterally, and he could be reprimanded by future governments because he even tries, said experts.
Ukraine began to accept that it would not regain its lost areas after the failure of the summer counter -offensive in 2023 in 2023. From that moment on, the Ukrainian army concentrated on defending the territory it still had.
In exchange for territorial concessions, Ukraine wants robust security guarantees that ideally include NATO membership or concrete plans to arm and train his troops against any future Russian invasion with the dedicated support of allies. One scenario proposes European boots to the ground that Russia rejects.
Zenskyy has said that the negotiations on the occupied Ukrainian territory will be taken out and will not probably take place until there is a ceasefire -the fire. At the end of March he told reporters after a call with Trump that the US president “clearly understands that we will legally not recognize any areas.”
He said that giving up territory 'the most difficult question' and 'a big challenge for us' would be.
Formal recognition of Crimea would also amount to political suicide for Zenskyy. It could expose him to legal action in the future, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the KYIV School of Economics and a former Economy Minister.
Signing a potentially unconstitutional document can be interpreted as high treason, said Mylovanov.
The Ukrainian government cannot act either. It has no constitutional means to accept a violation of its territorial integrity, and changing the territorial composition of the country requires a national referendum.
If the Ukrainian legislators even entertained the idea of surrendering Crimea, this would cause a long, vast legal debate.
“That is why Russia is pushing it because they know it is impossible to achieve,” said Mylovanov.
“Everything with regard to constitutional change gives Russia so much policy and public communication,” he added. “This is all they want.”
Soldiers in the front line say they will never stop fighting, regardless of what political leadership decides.
“We lost our best boys in this war,” said Oleksandr, a soldier in the Donetsk region, who spoke on condition that only his first name would be used in line with military protocols. “We will not stop if all Ukrainian countries are free.”
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Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova has contributed to this report.
