(Reuters) – The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is considering recognising Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as Russian territory in a possible future peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, the Semafor news website reported.
Semafor, citing two people familiar with the matter, said U.S. officials had also discussed the possibility of having Washington urge the United Nations to do the same.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report. Semafor said the White House had declined comment.
Semafor said Trump had not formally made any decisions, and that the possible Crimea moves were among various options being floated.
Trump was due to speak with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to try to convince the Russian president to accept a ceasefire in his country’s war with Ukraine and move towards a more permanent end to the three-year-old conflict.
Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine by most countries, and Kyiv has said it wants the Black Sea peninsula back even though it has recognised that returning it by force is unrealistic for now.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that Crimea, where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based and whose pre-annexation population was mostly Russian speakers, is already formally part of Russia, a question it says has been closed “forever.”
(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
