Zelensky insists Crimea is Ukrainian as US envoy meets Putin

Kyiv, Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday rejected suggestions Ukraine give up Crimea to Russia, as US President Donald Trump s envoy met...

Kyiv, Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday rejected suggestions Ukraine give up Crimea to Russia, as US President Donald Trump's envoy met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where the Kremlin said they discussed the "possibility" of direct ceasefire talks.

The three-hour meeting went ahead just after a Russian general was killed in a Moscow car bomb attack that Russia blamed on Ukraine. Ukraine is in turn outraged by a Russian strike on Kyiv that left 12 dead.

With Ukraine fearful Trump could force it to cede Crimea -- a strategic Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in 2014 -- Zelensky insisted the territory is "the property of the Ukrainian people".

"Our position is unchanged," he told reporters in Kyiv. "The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories... belong to Ukraine."

Zelensky cited the Kyiv strike as one of the reasons he might miss Pope Francis's funeral Saturday, where he could potentially have met Trump for the first time since their explosive White House confrontation in February.