US President-elect Donald Trump will not be able to keep his promise of swiftly ending the Ukraine conflict after returning to the White House, Kiev’s former foreign minister, Dmitry Kuleba, has claimed.
Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky would be willing to sign a deal that the incoming Trump administration could put forward, Kuleba told Politico on Wednesday, in what the outlet described as a “grim” and “pessimistic” interview.
“Ukraine is a personal obsession for Putin, but crushing Ukraine is also a means to accomplish his grand goal – to show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for,” he said.
According to the former foreign minister, the Russian president “still believes he can snuff out Ukrainian statehood and crush Ukraine as an independent democracy, and he thinks he is one step away from exposing the West as weak.”
During the US presidential election campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed that he could end the fighting between Moscow and Kiev within 24 hours if reelected. He did indicate to the US media that he would tell Zelensky: “No more. You got to make a deal.” The president-elect also implied that he could leverage further aid to Kiev in a bid to push Russia to the negotiating table.
In November, US Vice-President elect J.D. Vance suggested that a possible peace settlement would likely include Ukraine conceding territory to Russia and a demilitarized zone being set up between the two sides.
Kuleba, who was fired from his post as Ukrainian foreign minister in September, claimed that it is “inconceivable” that Zelensky would agree to give up any land to Moscow.
“The Russians keep the Donbass, they keep Crimea, no NATO membership. Can Zelensky sign? He cannot because of the [Ukrainian] Constitution. And because it will be the end of Zelensky politically,” he explained.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday that, considering the events on the ground, a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict is “still a very long way off.”
The US and allies “are still obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia,” he said.
According to Lavrov, no escalatory moves – including the recent approval by the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden for Kiev to stage long-range strikes deep into Russian territory – would make Moscow give up on the goals of its military operation. “We are ready for any turn of events, but we always prefer to resolve contentious issues by peaceful means,” Lavrov stressed.