President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently doubled down on his position that Kyiv will not accept any peace proposal that recognizes Crimea as Russian despite President Donald Trump's threats to walk away from peace processes.

Russia's illegal seizure of Crimea from Ukraine 11 years ago was quick and bloodless. But Kyiv — and most of the world — never recognized Moscow's annexation of the strategic peninsula, which is now a major focus of U.