US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” that would end their three-year war, after his envoy met with President Vladimir Putin on Friday in talks Moscow said were “constructive and very useful.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump said in an interview published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.

Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine are close to reaching an agreement. The parties "should now meet, at very high levels, to 'finish it off'," Trump wrote. On Friday in Moscow, Vladimir Putin met with the U.