Russia faced a wave of international condemnation in 2014 from the United States and other countries when it moved to annex the Crimean Peninsula.

Although Ukraine has never renounced its claim to the territory, President Donald Trump declared this week that it has been permanently lost. 

Trump says Crimea "was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama"

According to Politico, the president made that point during an interview with Time magazine which was published on Friday.

"Crimea will stay with Russia," Trump told the publication while adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "understands" this fact.

"Everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along," the American president stressed.

"It was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama, and not by me," Trump continued. "With that being said, will they be able to get it back? … [the Russian’s] have 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's peace plan includes recognizes Russian sovereignty over Crimea

Politico noted how Trump earlier made the same point in a recent Truth Social post, writing, "Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian territory."

"But if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" he demanded.

As the New York Post reported, American recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea is a key provision of Trump's proposed peace agreement.

Another provision involves de facto acceptance of Russia's occupation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia despite formally considering the areas to be Ukrainian territory.

White House says Trump's patience with Zelenskyy "is running very thin"

Zelenskyy has balked over having to drop his nation's territorial claims over Crimea, a position which has met with criticism from the White House.

The Post noted how White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump's complaints on Wednesday, telling journalists that "his patience is running very thin."

"He wants to see peace. He wants to see the killing stop but you need both sides of the war willing to do that, and unfortunately President Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction," Leavitt was quoted as saying.

"President Zelensky has been trying to litigate this peace negotiation in the press, and that’s unacceptable to the president," she added.