A senior adviser to the newly elected US President Donald Trump, Bryan Lanza, said that the new administration will focus on achieving peace in Ukraine, not on Kyiv reclaiming territories occupied by Russia. Lanza announced this in an interview with the British BBC television, reports TASR.
Lanza said the Trump administration will ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a “realistic vision of peace.” “If President Zelenskyy comes to the table and says, we can have peace only if we have Crimea, it will prove that he is not serious,” declared Lanza, according to whom Crimea is lost for Ukraine. The Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 in the first stages of the war in Ukraine.
“If your priority is to get Crimea back and let American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.” bequeathed to the Ukrainian government Lanza. The BBC recalls that Kiev never asked for American soldiers to fight on its behalf. Ukraine is only asking for American military aid to arm its own soldiers.
Trump’s adviser too criticized the support that the Joe Biden administration and European countries have provided to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “The reality on the ground is that the European states and President Biden did not provide Ukraine with the capabilities and weapons to win this war at the outset and did not lift restrictions so that Ukraine could win,” he declared.
In the interview, Lanza also praised the Ukrainians and stated that he greatly appreciates the Ukrainian people, who “have the hearts of lions”. But he said the US priority was “peace and stopping the killing”.
The BBC reminds that during the election campaign Trump has repeatedly said he can end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in one day.” but he never gave further details. A document written in May by two of his former security advisers said the US should continue supplying arms to Ukraine, but make that support conditional on the start of peace talks.
