One of the central points of tension in US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine is the Crimean peninsula, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has put the focus of his claims.

For over a decade, successive US governments, including Trump’s first term, condemned the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and stated that they would never recognize the annexation, but without doing much to help Kiev regain control.

Now, Trump publicly renounces this position, stating that the peninsula should remain in Russia in order to facilitate the reach of a peacekeeping agreement to end the war. In an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, Trump said: “Crimea will remain in Russia.”

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski reacted strongly, telling reporters that “Ukraine will never legally recognize the Occupation of Crimea”.

Trump and Zelenski met on Saturday before the funeral of Pope Francis, at their first meeting from the episode of the Oval Office in February. Although the details of the 15 -minute conversation were not released, both sides described it as positive, and later Trump criticized Putin through social networks, questioning whether the Russian president really wishes to end the war.

Ever since it occupied Crimea, Russia has suppressed the opposition and has promoted a Russian version of its history through museums, schools and repression of the disagreement, the Wall Street Journal said in an analysis.

For Ukraine and most of its allies, the occupation of Crimea by Russia has been a violation of international law and the West’s failure to react vigorously reinforced Moscow’s aggression.

Initially, Russia insisted that it has troops in the region. A few days after the pro -Russian president was overthrown after demonstrations in Kiev in February 2014, gunmen without discreetly appeared outside the Russian naval base in Sevastopol.

The Ukrainians attempted to prevent Russians from entering the Crimean parliament, but on the night of February 27, special forces invaded the building, raised the Russian flag and later overseered the vote for a referendum on a referendum.

The government in Kiev, who was trying to form a new administration and was discouraged by Washington to get involved in a battle, did not give clear orders to the Crimea soldiers to resist, which Trump has criticized.

The Obama government has done little to prevent annexation, expressing its dissatisfaction, calling on Russia to decline and impose sanctions on some Russian officials. Trump has accused then -President Barack Obama of allowing Russia to occupy Crimea, arguing that this would not have happened if he was in power.

Crimea passed Ukraine’s control in 1954, when the then leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev signed a decree citing the economic, territorial and cultural proximity between Crimea and Ukraine. When Ukraine held the independence referendum in 1991, more than half of Crimea voted voted in favor of independence.

On March 16, 2014, the Russians held a referendum in polls guarded by armed people. Russia announced that 95.5% of Crimea residents voted in favor of the Union with Russia. Putin signed the next day a law on the incorporation of Crimea into a ceremony in the Kremlin. In his later speech, Putin would liken Crimea to the term of the temple for Russia.

“Crimea was the basis from which it all started,” said Olcha Skripnik, who abandoned Crimea on the day of the referendum. “That is why the occupation of Crimea was only the first step towards the large -scale invasion. Russia did not intend to stop. “

Russia immediately began to delete any trace of Ukrainian presence in Crimea and impose its own footprint, looting museums and destroying historical monuments.

At the same time, as Moscow strengthened its naval and military presence in the area, Russian families massively arrived. Newly established government programs encouraged the relocation of citizens to Crimea, in an effort to reshape the population composition.

According to Ukraine estimates, about 800,000 Russians settled in Hersonissos after the Occupation, while at least 53,000 Ukrainian citizens abandoned it. Prior to the occupation, the Crimean population was about 2.3 million inhabitants, according to data from the Ukrainian government.

The new authorities in Crimea imposed Russian passports on Ukrainian citizens, even to those who did not wish. The refusal to receive a passport meant loss of access to health care, education, work and pensions. Those who maintained Ukrainian passports were constantly harassed.

“In order to renounce the citizenship of the Russian Federation, you must apply directly to Putin,” said Olcha Crisko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian president for Crimea. Most avoid this step, fearing persecution.

Russia has established its own judicial system in Crimea, carrying judges from Russian hinterland to carry out criminal proceedings that Ukrainian authorities and human rights organizations characterize illegal, targeting mainly activists and journalists. The scale of repression was so great that the Russian authorities were forced to open additional detention centers.

The persecutions particularly hit the Crimean Tatars, who had been massively displaced by Stalin and only in the 1980s, with the relaxation of the Soviet regime, began to return home.

The ornament in Putin’s “Crown” in Crimea was the construction of a bridge over the strait of Kerch, which linked the peninsula with the Russian inland and it took two years to complete. When the bridge opened in 2018, Putin crossed her personally driving a truck.

As it was prepared for the large -scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia strengthened its forces in Crimea, using Hersonissos as a base for the occupation of the southern Ukrainian areas of Zaporizia and Hersona.

Battle tanks proceeded from the Crimea peninsula to the Ukrainian hinterland. Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea pounded the Ukrainian coasts.

After the Occupation of Ukrainian territories in 2022, the Crimean peninsula served as a refueling hub for the support of the Russian army. Ukrainian attacks with rockets and drones were frequent, while Kerch’s bridge was hit twice and had to close.

Russia used the port of Sevastopol to transport stolen Ukrainian wheat, while prisons in Crimea were hosting Ukrainian citizens arrested by occupation forces. Many of the thousands of children abducted from Ukraine were transferred to camps in Crimea.

Russia has begun to suppress even more violently of any pro -Turkish feeling. Since 2022, it has seized twice as much as in comparison to the previous eight years. Human rights organizations say that women and the elderly are now targeted.

Because most of those arrested are civilians, there are no mechanisms for captive exchanges. Authorities say that only 10 people from Crimea have returned as part of an exchange since 2014.

Zelenski has strongly opposed the idea of ​​giving Ukraine to Crimea. In a post on social media, he quoted the Declaration for Crimea 2018, issued by then -Foreign Minister Trump, Mike Pompeo.

Russia, Pompeo wrote in the Declaration, “sought to undermine a fundamental international authority sharing the democratic states: that no state can change the borders of another by force.”

Just a few days earlier, Trump had said, “What will happen to Crimea from now on?” said at a press conference. “I can’t tell you that.”