The Trump administration is ready to recognize Russian control of Crimea as part of a proposal to help end to the war with Ukraine, according to an official familiar with the framework. The proposal would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the source said.
The framework was shared with European and Ukrainian officials who met in Paris yesterday, the source said. It was also communicated in a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out. The US plans to work with Europe and Ukraine on that next week in London, the source said.
The Trump administration is simultaneously planning another meeting between President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian officials to get Moscow on board with the overall US framework, the source said.
Remember: Russian forces seized control of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and Moscow annexed the territory in a move considered illegal by a vast majority of the international community. The move presaged Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
