Lithuanian president says why Crimea should not be recognised as Russian territory

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has warned that the legal recognition of Crimea as part of Russia would be a "time bomb". This was reported by Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.

If we do what is proposed and recognise Crimea as de jure Russian, it will be a time bomb that will explode and explode all the time. That's where the red lines are drawn that cannot be crossed," Nauseda said.

He emphasised that any such initiatives should be discussed with Ukraine, which has been a victim of aggression by the Russian Federation. According to Nauseda, it is the Ukrainian people who have suffered heavy losses, destruction of infrastructure and economy that should have the final say.

The Lithuanian president also expressed support for Volodymyr Zelensky's positions on ending the war.

Earlier in an interview with The Time , US President Donald Trump said that Crimea would be recognised as Russian as part of the peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Crimea will remain with Russia. And Zelensky understands this, and everyone understands that it is together with them for a long time - said the US President.

He also said that the occupation of Crimea took place during the presidency of Barack Obama and traditionally added that Russia "would not have taken Crimea" if he had been president at the time.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it was up to the Ukrainian people to decide who Crimea should belong to.

Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian. And the Constitution of Ukraine decides: all temporarily occupied territories - they are temporarily occupied, they all belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people. Ukraine will not legally recognise any temporarily occupied territories," Zelensky stressed.

Earlier Zelensky said that Ukraine would not recognise the Russian occupation of Crimea. In his turn, the US leader said that Zelensky's position "harms peace talks with Russia".