Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said President-elect Donald Trump would not be able to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Politico, Kuleba speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in no mood to negotiate, seeing Ukraine as on the back foot.
“Putin still believes he can snuff out Ukrainian statehood and crush Ukraine as an independent democracy, and he thinks he’s one step away from exposing the West as weak,” he said.
“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,” Kuleba continued.
He also laid criticism against Ukraine’s European allies, claiming they were not doing enough.
“People in Europe can be pissed off with me, but I kept saying, and I will keep saying, that the truth is today, Russia has a friend ready to send its soldiers to die for Russia war,” Kuleba said, compared to Ukraine’s allies, whom he said have not sent the weapons the country needs.
According to the former foreign minister, who left his position in September, any deal to end the war would be dead on arrival due to a lack of receptiveness on both sides. While Putin feels emboldened, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also cannot politically afford to sign a peace deal that would likely entail the forfeiting of rights to the territory occupied by Russia.
“The Russians keep the Donbas, they keep Crimea, no NATO membership. Can Zelensky sign? He cannot because of the Constitution,” Kuleba said. “And because it will be the end of Zelensky politically.”
Kuleba feared that Trump would withhold arms shipments from Ukraine as a way to force a peace deal, something the former official warned would be harmful to Ukraine.
“The front line in the Donbas will collapse, and the Russians will be at the gates of Dnipro, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhia,” he warned. “That will be the most dangerous moment for Ukraine in this war.”
Kuleba chastised Western countries for objecting to France’s proposal to directly involve itself in the war by sending troops.
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“If you ask me what was the biggest mistake of the West in the past year, I would say the fierce public denunciation by European leaders of [French President] Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send troops to Ukraine. I have no doubt that Putin loved it,” he said. “For me, it was shocking.”
The war in Ukraine reached its 1,000th day last week, a milestone that saw Russia with a clear initiative. The future of the war is more uncertain than ever as Trump takes office, promising to end the war on Day One.
