Telegraph: Trump prepares to recognise Russia's occupied territories in Ukraine

The United States appears prepared to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories as part of a potential deal to end the war.

The Telegraph reports that Donald Trump plans to send special envoy Steve Whitcoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Moscow to present the offer to Vladimir Putin.

The proposal to recognize Russia’s sovereignty is expected to move forward despite concerns raised by Ukraine’s European allies. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, “it is increasingly clear that the Americans are not interested in the position of the Europeans. They say the Europeans can do what they want.”

Russia’s president said on Thursday that U.S. legal recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory would be one of the main issues in negotiations over the U.S. president’s peace plan.

On Friday, the Kremlin announced that it had received a revised strategy for ending the war, drawn up after emergency talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Geneva last week.

The original 28-point peace plan, formulated by Whitcoff after discussions with Russian officials, included de facto U.S. recognition of Crimea and the two eastern regions of the Donbas. It also proposed de facto recognition of Russian-held areas behind the contact line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions following any ceasefire agreement.

In Geneva, Ukrainian and U.S. officials negotiated a new, 19-point version of the plan that is less favorable to Moscow. However, multiple sources say that U.S. offers of recognition remain part of the strategy.

Ukraine will not be required to formally recognize Russia’s control over the territories it has illegally annexed since 2014. The Ukrainian constitution prohibits any president or government from ceding territory without first submitting the issue to citizens through a nationwide referendum.

The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and national security adviser Rustem Umerov were expected to travel to Florida this weekend to meet with U.S. officials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

In a new interview with The Atlantic, Yermak—who negotiated the latest peace plan—said:

“No sane person today would sign a document to cede territory. As long as Zelensky is president, no one should expect us to cede territory. He will not sign a document to cede territory. The Constitution forbids such a thing. No one can do it unless he wants to go against the Ukrainian Constitution and the Ukrainian people.”

The final sentence leaves open the more contentious questions, including ultimate territorial concessions, which will be addressed only after private talks between Zelensky and Trump. The Ukrainian president has not yet announced when he will travel to Washington or Florida to meet with his U.S. counterpart.