Trump’s Team Shuts Down Ex-Adviser’s Crimea Claim: ‘Does Not Speak for Him’

President-elect Donald Trump’s team has shut down a former adviser’s claim that the Trump administration’s priority for Ukraine would be on establishing peace and not restoring territory lost to Russia, including Crimea.

Bryan Lanza, a Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s presidential campaign and is not involved with the transition, said in an interview that the incoming Trump administration would be asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a “realistic vision for peace.”

“If President Zelensky comes to the table and says, well we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows to us that he’s not serious. Crimea is gone,” Lanza said on the BBC World Service’s Weekend program.

The priority for the U.S. would be “peace and to stop the killing,” Lanza said.

A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team denied that Lanza spoke for Trump. He “does not work for President Trump and does not speak for him,” the spokesperson told the BBC.

A Trump spokesperson has been contacted for further comment via email. Lanza declined to provide further comment when contacted by Newsweek.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and has occupied territory in the east of Ukraine after launching a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine and said he would have a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia done within a day if elected.

He has not revealed how that would be achieved, but has not ruled out the possibility that Ukraine may have to cede land to Russia.

He also criticized Zelensky on the campaign trail, calling him “the greatest salesman on Earth” for securing billions of dollars of U.S. military aid.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump’s advisers have proposed freezing the war in place, allowing Russia to keep the territory it has gained, and creating a demilitarized zone in the east of Ukraine.

Zelensky has repeatedly said that Russian forces must be expelled and all territory captured by Russia, including Crimea, must be returned to Ukraine for peace to be established.

Zelensky spoke with Trump by phone on Wednesday, with billionaire Elon Musk joining the call, according to several media reports.

He rebuffed Trump’s plans for a swift peace deal on Thursday, saying that it would be a “loss” for Ukraine.

“I believe that President Trump really wants a quick decision” to end the war, Zelensky told reporters in Budapest. “It doesn’t mean that it will happen this way.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is “open to a constructive dialogue based on justice, equality, and mutual respect for each other’s concerns,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

He “remains committed to this position and has reiterated it multiple times,” he said, according to the Russia state news agency Tass. “But today, the U.S. administration holds a contrary position. Let’s wait and see what happens in January.”