Ukraine will have to relinquish its claims to Russian territory as part of a peace deal envisioned by former US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing anonymous insiders.
The Republican nominee for the November election has boasted on numerous occasions that he would be able to end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, should he win the presidency. However, Trump has declined to provide details on his plan.
The terms that Trump wants to push through involve Kiev recognising Crimea and Donbass as parts of Russia, the newspaper said, citing people who have discussed the issue with the former president or his advisers. However, his campaign downplayed those accounts as mere “speculation” by “uninformed sources who have no idea what is going on or what will happen”.
Crimea has been a part of Russia since 2014, when residents rejected a US-backed armed coup in Kiev and voted in a referendum to seek Russian protection from the new government.
The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics also defied the post-coup authorities and took up arms, when Kiev sent in the army to quash them. Ukraine’s refusal to implement a roadmap for reconciliation with Donbass, the so-called Minsk Agreements, and preparation for renewed hostilities, were cited by Moscow as the key triggers of the current conflict.
Western officials have pledged military support for Kiev for “as long as it takes” to resist Russia. However a string of battlefield setbacks for Ukrainian forces and the Western failure to provide sufficient aid have put a dent in the strategy.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg last week urged foreign donors to ramp up support, with the aim of giving Kiev a stronger position during hypothetical peace talks.
“The way to convince Russia that they have to sit down and accept a solution where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent democratic nation in Europe is to give military support to Ukraine,” he told the BBC on Sunday. “Of course, at the end of the day it has to be Ukraine that decides what kind of compromises they are willing to [make].”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has declared full the capture of lost territories, including Crimea, as the only outcome of the conflict that his government will accept. Moscow has said it is willing to negotiate, if Kiev acknowledges the “reality on the ground”.