Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both were part of the USSR, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the unification of Moscow and Kyiv. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.

The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, warns that recognizing Russian control over Crimea would be a "time bomb." "It would be a time bomb that keeps exploding over and over again," said Nausėda.

President Trump has been accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.