U.S. President Donald Trump says “Crimea will stay with Russia." It's a definitive statement about the need for Ukraine to cede territory to end the war.

In 1944, Stalin deported almost all Crimean Tatars to Central Asia in what Ukraine recognises as an act of genocide. They were only allowed to return home in the late 1980s. As we've been reporting, Crimea has been a point of contention in peace talks for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukrainian forces would be unable to regain control over Crimea and said the US won’t have to commit troops as part of security guarantees in an apparent overture to President Donald Trump.