KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that \u201cCrimea will stay with Russia,\u201d the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.<\/p>\n
\u201cZelenskyy understands that,\u201d Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, \u201cand everybody understands that it\u2019s been with them for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Trump has been accusing Zelenskyy of prolonging the war<\/a> by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western European leaders, however, have accused Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.<\/p>\n The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration weighs its options. Senior U.S. officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to a settlement. That could potentially mean a halt of crucial U.S. military aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n Crimea is a strategic peninsula<\/a> along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while President Barack Obama was in office, years before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we\u2019re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut this was given by Obama. This wasn\u2019t given by Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Zelenskyy has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian is a red line for his country.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters Friday as he left the White House to attend the funeral of Pope Francis<\/a> in Rome, Trump said there is no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to do it as fast as possible,\u201d Trump said. Negotiators are \u201cpretty close\u201d to a deal, he said.<\/p>\n He promised to meet with foreign leaders while in Rome, and said it was \u201cpossible\u201d he could meet with Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n Trump envoy Steve Witkoff<\/a> met with Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February. Witkoff\u2019s trip coincided with the death of a senior Russian military officer in a car bomb<\/a> near Moscow.<\/p>\n The Kremlin released a short video of Putin and Witkoff greeting each other. \u201cHow are you, Mr. President?\u201d Witkoff could be heard saying. \u201cFine, just fine, thank you,\u201d Putin responded in rare remarks in English, as the two shook hands.<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks, said the meeting lasted three hours and was \u201cconstructive\u201d and \u201cuseful.\u201d Further talks are expected, he said.<\/p>\n Putin and Witkoff discussed, \u201cin particular, the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine,\u201d according to Ushakov. Delegations from the two countries last met in the weeks following Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor.<\/p>\n Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation\u201d that he agreed with Trump\u2019s opinion that negotiations \u201care moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia, he said, is \u201cready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points \u2014 elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned.\u201d He declined to provide further details, according to excerpts of the interview that will air Sunday.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s attacks claim more lives <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukraine. A drone struck an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said Friday, a day after Trump rebuked Putin<\/a> for a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv<\/a> that killed 12 people and injured 87. <\/p>\n A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the nighttime drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine\u2019s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine\u2019s air force reported. Authorities in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.<\/p>\n Russian forces used Thursday\u2019s attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, Zelenskyy said late Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the maximum of our forces was focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,\u201d he wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy noted Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued. <\/p>\n During recent talks, Russia hit the city of Sumy<\/a>, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, battered Odesa with drones<\/a> and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n