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Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect comments from the Trump White House transition team distancing itself from Lanza's comments.
A senior advisor to President-elect Donald Trump has said Ukraine needs to be "realistic" in its aims for the war, adding the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea was "gone."
Speaking to the BBC on Nov. 9, Republican party strategist Bryan Lanza said the Trump administration would ask President Volodymyr Zelensky to present a "realistic vision for peace."
"When Zelensky says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace once Crimea is returned, we've got news for President Zelensky: Crimea is gone," he said.
Russia invaded and then illegally annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Ukraine's leadership has said publicly that it plans to restore the country's 1991 borders, which includes the liberation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas occupied by Russia since 2014.
Lanza did not reference the Donbas during the interview, but said the return of Crimea was "not the goal of the United States."
Despite U.S. troops never being deployed in Ukraine, nor Kyiv ever requesting as much, Lanza added Ukraine would be "on your own" if the goal was "having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back."
Following reports of his comments, a spokesperson for Trump's White House transition team distanced Lanza from Trump, Reuters reported.
"Bryan Lanza was a contractor for the campaign," the unnamed spokesperson told Reuters. "He does not work for President Trump and does not speak for him."
Trump defeated Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election, adding further uncertainty for Ukraine as it struggles to envision its future.
"If we have a win, long before Jan. 20, before I would take the presidency, long before that, I think we could work out something that is good for both sides," Trump said, standing alongside Zelensky in New York in September.
It remains unclear why Russia would want to pause at the current phase since Moscow's forces are currently at the height of their offensive in 2024 and reportedly still have the resources to keep pushing further.
On Nov. 9, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia was "ready to listen" to Trump's proposals but added that there would be no "simple solution."
The Kyiv Independent news desk
