Trump accuses Zelensky of harming peace talks | 23 April 2025 | Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky could lose the entirety of his country if he continues stalling talks with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump warned in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. Zelensky had publicly announced that Kiev will not even discuss officially recognizing the Crimean Peninsula as Russian, a key tenet of a Washington-backed peace proposal which it was to present at a meeting with officials the country's European backers on Wednesday. Following the rebuttal the top members of the U.S. delegation withdrew from the planned talks, leading to the meeting being "downgraded" at the last minute. "This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago," Trump wrote, accusing the Ukrainian leader of prolonging the conflict. Crimea's predominantly ethnic-Russian population voted to join Russia in a referendum in 2014, following a Western-backed armed coup in Kiev.