Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ as he seeks end to war in Ukraine

Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ as he seeks end to war in Ukraine
President Donald Trump said in an interview published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia," the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege. (AP/File)
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Updated 25 April 2025
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Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ as he seeks end to war in Ukraine

Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ as he seeks end to war in Ukraine
  • “They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Trump said
  • “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump”

KYIV: President Donald Trump said in an interview published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” the latest example of the US leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.
“Zelensky understands that,” Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”
The US president made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Trump has been accusing Zelensky of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while President Barack Obama was in office, years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.
“They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment. A drone struck an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said Friday, a day after Trump rebuked Russia’s leader for a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the nighttime drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration weighs its options. Senior US officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to an agreement. That could potentially mean a halt of US military aid for Ukraine.
Amid the peace efforts, Russia pounded Kyiv in an hourslong barrage Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.
The attack drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from Trump, who has said that a push to end the war is coming to a head.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
Trump’s frustration is growing as his effort to forge a deal between Ukraine and Russia has failed to achieve a breakthrough.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.
Trump accused Zelensky on Wednesday of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014. Zelensky has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plan to arrive in Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square on Saturday. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would meet separately.
An explosion in Moscow targets a senior officer
Meanwhile, a senior Russian military officer was killed by a car bomb near Moscow on Friday, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said.
The attack follows the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov on Dec. 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov.
Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
Russian forces used Thursday’s attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, Zelensky said late Thursday.
“When the maximum of our forces was focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,” he wrote on Telegram.
Western European leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.
Zelensky noted Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a US ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued.
During recent talks, Russia hit the city of Sumy, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, battered Odesa with drones and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.


’Seventh heaven’: Tears and laughter as Ukrainian POWs return

Updated 8 sec ago
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’Seventh heaven’: Tears and laughter as Ukrainian POWs return

’Seventh heaven’: Tears and laughter as Ukrainian POWs return
CHERNIGIV: Waxy and emaciated, Konstantin Steblev spoke to his mother for the first time in three years after being released as part of the biggest ever prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.
“Hello mum, how are you?,” the 31-year-old soldier said, moments after stepping back onto Ukrainian soil on Friday.
“I love you. Don’t be sad. It wasn’t my fault. I promised I would come back safe and sound,” he said, smiling but with watery eyes.
Steblev, who was captured at the start of Russia’s invasion, was one of 390 military and civilian prisoners released in exchange for 390 sent back to Russia.
More swaps are expected on Saturday and Sunday to bring the total to 1,000 for 1,000 as agreed in talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week.
Steblev arrived with the other former captives by coach at a local hospital where hundreds of relatives were waiting, shouting, crying and singing “Congratulations!“
During the journey back to Ukraine, Steblev told AFP he experienced “indescribable” emotions.
“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” he said.


During his years of captivity, Steblev said he managed to keep going thanks to his wife.
“She knows I am strong and that I am not going to give up just like that,” he said, adding that now he just wants to be with his family.
“It’s my absolute priority,” he said.
After that, he said it would be up to his wife to decide on the next steps.
“She will tell me and will show me how to act in future,” he said.
Thin, tired and looking slightly lost, the freshly released prisoners filed into a local hospital for medical checks.
But Olena and Oleksandr stayed outside, locked in a tight embrace despite the cameras pointed at them.
They said they had not seen each other in 22 months since Oleksandr was captured by Russia.
“I am in seventh heaven,” the 45-year-old said in his wife’s arms.
He said his dream now was to “eat... eat and spend time with my family.”


As the buses arrived at the hospital, relatives of soldiers who are still in prison ran toward the freed men to show them images of their loved ones and ask if they had seen them during their captivity.
Some women walked away crying when they failed to get any news.
Some know that their relatives are jailed but others have no news at all and desperately hope for any scrap of information.
Moments after being reunited with her husband Andriy after three years apart, Elia, 33, embraced the tearful mother of a soldier who had no news about her son.
When she saw her husband, Elia said her “heart was beating out of my chest” and she cried with joy.
“I have been waiting so long for this,” she said.
Several former prisoners of war interviewed by AFP in the past have spoken of harsh conditions and torture in Russian prisons.
Elia is now thinking about the future and about having a child with her husband.
But she said she knew that the path to rehabilitation would be a long one for him.
“He has an empty stare but I know they did not break him. The guys with him told me he was very strong,” she said.

Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia

Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia
Updated 10 min 46 sec ago
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Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia

Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia
  • Pope Leo XIV promotes dialogue and building bridges to the Roman Curia in his first meeting with the Church's governing body.
  • Pope Leo XIV urges people to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”

VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV took his message of building bridges and promoting dialogue to the Roman Curia on Saturday, in his first audience with members of the Catholic Church’s governing body.
The late Pope Francis had sometimes difficult relations with the Curia and Vatican officials, accusing them early in his papacy of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and a lust for power.
The new pontiff, the first from the United States, said Saturday that his inaugural meeting was an opportunity to say thanks for all their work.
“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” Leo told the audience of officials, staff and their families in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI hall.
He repeated his first words from St. Peter’s Basilica when he became pope on May 8, where he urged people to “build bridges” and to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
“If we must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us try to do so first of all with our behavior in everyday situations, starting from the work environment,” the pope said.
“Everyone can be a builder of unity with their attitudes toward colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience and humility, putting themselves in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humor, as Pope Francis taught us.”
From decentralising power and increasing transparency to providing greater roles for lay people and women, Francis implemented several reforms of the Roman Curia.
But his criticism left a lasting impression among many officials, and he also drew accusations of being too authoritarian in his governance, regularly bypassing the administrative bodies of the Holy See.
In 2024, the Vatican — where trade unions are not recognized — also saw an unprecedented strike by around 50 employees of the Vatican Museums over their working conditions.
The pope spent two decades working in Peru but for the past two years was head of the Vatican department responsible for appointing bishops worldwide.


US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
Updated 24 May 2025
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US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
  • Prominent East African activists are facing detention and torture following government crackdown on dissent in Uganda and Tanzania.
  • The United States voiced its concern over the mistreatment of several activists and called for an investigation into human rights abuses.

NAIROBI: The United States expressed concern Saturday over the “mistreatment” of two east African activists in Tanzania, days after they were detained and reportedly tortured.
Prominent campaigners Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda traveled to Tanzania this week in solidarity with detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu ahead of his court hearing on charges of treason, which carries a potential death penalty.
But they themselves were detained before being deported and then found abandoned near the Tanzanian border.
Mwangi and rights groups allege that both were tortured while held “incommunicado” for days.
The US Bureau of African Affairs said on X it was “deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment” of Atuhaire and Mwangi while in Tanzania.
“We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses,” it said, urging “all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture.”
Atuhaire received in 2023 the EU Human Rights Defender Award for her work in Uganda and was honored last year with the International Women of Courage Award by former US First Lady Jill Biden.
Mwangi is a longtime critic of the Kenyan government, frequently denouncing instances of alleged injustice and rights abuses.
Human rights groups say Tanzania and neighboring Uganda have accelerated crackdowns on opponents and dissidents as they prepare for presidential elections in the next seven months.
But Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has slammed what she called interference in the country’s affairs and had urged security services “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”


India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
Updated 24 May 2025
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India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
  • Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1

MUMBAI: Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, the weather office said, offering respite from a grueling heat wave while boosting prospects for bumper harvests.

Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.


Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight
Updated 24 May 2025
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Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

KYIV: Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that it had downed six ballistic missiles and 245 drones from a massive Russian barrage overnight that was mainly targeted at the capital Kyiv.
“Air defense shot down 6 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles (Kyiv) and neutralized 245 enemy Shahed-type UAVs,” the air force said in a statement.