Crimean

Kyiv has faced growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of any deal with Moscow to end fighting, which could reportedly include giving up the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The issue of the occupied Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, has become a particular flashpoint.

First, it’s worth noting that Zelensky wasn’t president until 2019, five years after the Crimean annexation and the subsequent incursions into eastern Ukraine by Russian special forces.

Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis, a body representing Crimean Tatars, has insisted that Ukraine must categorically reject any territorial concession in exchange for peace.

More than half the population of Crimea was Russian, mainly because the original majority population of Crimean Tatars were deported under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1944.