by WILL COOPER
NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump has declared it “impossible” for Ukraine to reclaim Crimea or secure membership in NATO, arguing that both issues remain non-negotiable given Russia’s security concerns.
Speaking in an interview with Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Trump said Ukrainian leaders had sought NATO assistance in their bid to retake Crimea but were told the request could not be met. “They went in and said, ‘We want to get Crimea back.’ The other thing they said was, ‘We want to be a member of NATO.’ Well, both of those things are impossible,” Trump stated.
He described Crimea’s 2014 shift to Russian control as decisive, noting that Moscow secured the peninsula “without firing a single shot.” Trump added that Russia had consistently made clear its opposition to NATO expanding to its borders, calling it “always a no-no.”
Crimea, home to a majority ethnic Russian population, voted in 2014 to join the Russian Federation shortly after a Western-backed change of government in Kiev. Moscow has since justified its actions by pointing to alleged discrimination against Russian speakers and Ukraine’s NATO ambitions.
While Trump has previously floated the possibility of “land swaps” as part of broader peace negotiations, he reiterated on Tuesday that Crimea would not be returned to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has publicly rejected territorial concessions, though he recently acknowledged that land swaps were raised during talks at the White House.
The Washington meeting came days after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where the two leaders discussed potential frameworks to end the conflict. Moscow has maintained that any settlement must include Ukraine renouncing NATO membership, demilitarizing, and recognizing Russian control over Crimea and four other regions annexed in 2022.
– CAJ News
