In another public blowout with Washington, Ukrainian President Zelensky tweets photo of U.S. commitment during Trump’s first term to reject Russia’s annexation of Crimea

In an exchange of social media posts on Wednesday, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky butted heads over the status of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2024. The U.S. president accused his Ukrainian counterpart of “harming peace negotiations with Russia” by refusing to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Trump argued that “Crimea was lost years ago […] and is not even a point of discussion” today. He also stated that “nobody is asking Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian territory.”

In response, Zelensky acknowledged that “emotions have run high today” and expressed hope that “the USA will act in line with its strong decisions,” sharing a screenshot of a press statement by Trump’s secretary of state in July 2018, Michael Pompeo, that called on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea and stated Washington’s refusal to recognize Moscow’s claims on the territory.

This latest blowout between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents follows reporting by The Washington Post that American negotiators planned to present Ukrainian and European delegations in London with a proposal to recognize Crimea as Russian territory and freeze the war’s current front lines, leading Zelensky to reiterate publicly that his administration will never accept Russian soverignty over Crimea. The London talks ultimately collapsed when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as the foreign ministers of several European countries who were expected to attend, failed to appear. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian delegation did travel to London and met with another special envoy from Trump’s administration, Keith Kellogg.