For over a decade, successive U.S. administrations, including Trump’s first, decried Russia’s armed seizure of Crimea in 2014 and said they would never recognize the land grab

Donald Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published today that "Crimea will stay with Russia". Ukrainian President Zelensky says Crimea belongs to Ukraine, following comments from US President Trump who said "Crimea will stay with Russia", in an interview with Time.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both were part of the USSR, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the unification of Moscow and Kyiv. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.