Trump suggests recognising Crimea as legally Russian, infuriating the people who live there

When she saw her neighbour turned up brutally murdered after being abducted, she knew she had to act. Then, Trump made a stunning announcement.

When Lierane Tulchiy’s neighbour was abducted off the street after staging a peaceful one-man protest against Russia’s occupation of Crimea in March 2014, she knew she had to help.

She searched for him with other volunteers and started reporting on the unfolding tragedy.

Reshat Ametov would be found later that month, brutally murdered, some 40k out of his home city of Simferopol.

Mr Ametov, a Crimean Tatar, has been widely regarded as the first victim of Moscow’s illegal annexation of the peninsula in 2014, which marked the start of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

“They wanted to do it quietly but there were victims, including my neighbour,” Ms Tulchiy said.

Lierane Tulchiy at her restaurant Krymsky Dvorik in Lviv. Picture: Natalie Vikhrov

Her homeland has now found itself at the centre of peace talks after members of Donald Trump’s administration suggested recognising the peninsula as legally Russian, sparking skepticism, anger and concern from the Crimean Tatar population.

“It’s populism,” Ms Tulchiy said, adding she was doubtful the US would move further with the idea.

“Trump has effectively played on the internal reflexes of Americans who are supposedly tired of helping everyone in the world,” she said.

Since Russia seized the peninsula in 2014, authorities have targeted Crimean Tatars – who are largely pro-Ukrainian – through harassment and mass arrests. Moscow also banned their representative body, the Mejlis.

Ms Tulchiy, who became an activist following the occupation of her homeland, left the peninsula with her family after a neighbour with a connection to the Russian security service told her it was unsafe to stay.

She made a new life for her family in Irpin in the Kyiv region but when the town became one of the first to be occupied by Russian forces in 2022, she was forced to flee once again – this time to Lviv where she now runs a restaurant.

Lierane Tulchiy's restaurant Krymsky Dvorik in Lviv. Picture: Natalie Vikhrov

In Kyiv, Erfan Kudusov, who also fled the peninsula after Russian occupation, said US legally recognising Crimea as Russia would hold grave consequences for both Crimean Tatars and the world.

“It will be the grossest violation and lead to destabilisation everywhere,” adding that such a decision could embolden powers like China to make a move on Taiwan.

“It will be the death of our people, the death of our history.”

Erfan Kudusov at his home in Kyiv. Picture: Natalie Vikhrov

The Turkic Muslim minority are native to the peninsula but have a long history of battling Russian imperialism and repression.

Like many Crimean Tatars, Mr Kudusov and Ms Tulchiy were born not on the peninsula but in Uzbekistan, a result of Joseph Stalin’s forceful deportation of the ethnic group in 1944.

Mr Kudusov said when the Tatars were able to return in the late 1980s, they felt a deep joy despite facing immense social and financial struggles.

“The situation started to change by the 2000s when we were able to do something for ourselves … our artists, poets, a Crimean Tatar theatre was established,” he said.

Russia, he said, has been destroying what they had built once again.

Both Mr Kudusov and Ms Tulchiy, whose Ukrainian husband served in the military, say they hope to return to Crimea one day even though they know the price of a Ukrainian victory is high.

“The price is very high but after the last 300 years, we have a chance to finish with (Russia), she said.

Originally published as Trump suggests recognising Crimea as legally Russian, infuriating the people who live there