US considers recognizing Crimea as Russian territory in peace proposal

According to The Wall Street Journal, the US has presented Ukraine with a proposal drafted by the Donald Trump administration aimed at ending the conflict. This proposal includes certain concessions to Moscow.

According to the newspaper, these concessions include Washington recognizing Crimea, which was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014, as Russian territory and excluding the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO.

The newspaper reported that these ideas were outlined in a document presented by senior US administration officials to their Ukrainian counterparts and European officials in Paris on April 17.

Washington is awaiting a response from Kyiv at a meeting with representatives from Ukraine and European countries in London this weekend.

If the parties’ positions align, the proposals could then be forwarded to Moscow.

Washington does not recognize Russia’s control over the Donbas republics, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, but the US is also not demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from these regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last summer that for the peace process to begin, these regions must be internationally recognized as belonging to Russia, and Ukrainian troops must completely withdraw from them.

Kyiv described these demands as an ultimatum. Both Russia and Ukraine reject territorial concessions.

According to Western officials, another proposal envisions the areas around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant gaining neutral status and being controlled by the US.

According to the newspaper’s sources, the US is not proposing to limit the size of the Ukrainian army, is not excluding Western military support for Kyiv, or the deployment of European troops to Ukraine, which constitutes a “fundamental obstacle” for Moscow.

A senior official from the US Department of State, who was not named, told the newspaper that the US is not operating on a “take it or leave it” principle when conveying its ideas to Ukraine, and that it wants Kyiv to consider them.

The official stated that the “list of possible options” was presented “for discussion and feedback.”

The possibility of the US considering recognizing Russia’s control over Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement was first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by a source at CNN.

WSJ notes that such a step would contradict Washington’s policy of over a decade.

The US imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014, and in 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served during the first term of the Trump administration, described Moscow’s actions as a “threat to the fundamental international principle shared by democratic states, namely that no country can change another country’s borders by force.”

During the same period, the US Congress passed a law prohibiting the recognition of the peninsula as belonging to Russia.