from entering Gaza more than 10 weeks ago.

Asked by reporters on Sunday if Zelenskyy was ready to give up Crimea, Trump said, “Oh, I think so. Crimea was 12 years ago. That was President Obama that gave it up without a shot being fired.”His comments offered the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end

while it remains under siege. Trump has also accused Zelenskyy ofby resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, was seized by Russia years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022. The Russian takeover followed large protests that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union.

In the lead-up to peace talks, Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press for months that they expect Crimea and other Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia to be among Kyiv’s concessions in the event of any deal. But Zelenskyy has said on multiple occasions that formally surrendering the land has always been a red line.Elements of Trump’s peace proposal would see the U.S. formally recognizing Crimea as Russian and de facto accepting Moscow’s rule over occupied Ukrainian territories, according to a senior European official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions.

Whether the U.S. formally recognizes Crimea as Russian is out of Zelenskyy’s hands. But many obstacles prevent the Ukrainian president from doing so, even under immense pressure. He cannot unilaterally sign any such proposal, and he could be reprimanded by future governments for even attempting it, experts said.

Ukraine began to accept that it would not regain its lost territories after theRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the war in a phone call Sunday with Rubio, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. They focused on “consolidating the emerging prerequisites for starting negotiations,” the statement said, without elaborating.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions. Ukraine has accepted it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.A French diplomatic official said over the weekend that Trump, Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed “to pursue in the coming days the work of convergence” to obtain “a solid ceasefire.”

The diplomat said a truce is a “prior condition for a peace negotiation that respects the interest of Ukraine and the Europeans.”The official was not authorized to be publicly identified in accordance with French presidential policy.