Former US Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul criticizes the approach of the new President Donald Trump administration in connection with the settlement of the war in Ukraine. In an interview for the German Stern magazine published on Thursday, Trump’s team already said He started negotiating publicly and makes “big concessions” to Russian President Vladimir Putin before peace interviews. According to DPA, TASR reports this.
McFaul apparently hinted at the statements of the US Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth, who said on Wednesday in Brussels that the return of Ukraine to the borders before 2014 is an unrealistic goal, as well as its ambition to join the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO). According to DPA, Hegseth also said that the United States will not guarantee the security of Ukraine.
“I do not consider it a wise strategy to give Putin everything he wants, before he sits behind the negotiating table – especially with the Ukrainians,” He said McFaul, who was the Ambassador to Moscow for President Barack Obama’s administration. He is the author of several books on Russia and works as a professor of political sciences at Stanford University.
Based on his own experience, he says that Putin is a very persistent negotiator who considers everything to be a business. According to McFaul, this is similar to Trump. It is therefore extremely surprised why the negotiators of the White House boss gave Putin concessions before the start of the peace negotiations themselves.
“This is not how it is – especially not with the Russians,” McFaul noted. The fact that the US will not send to Ukraine its troops should be part of the agreement and Washington should get something for it, believes. But also He said he was absurd that Trump thinks he could negotiate with Putin before informing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Greeny. “This is not how it works,” noted.
Wednesday’s call Trump and Putin, who agreed immediately to start negotiations on the end of the war in Ukraine, according to McFaul, gave the impression that leaders can negotiate without the participation of the Ukrainians, which he described as a very bad start. It claims that it is in the interest of the West not only to sit on the meeting table not only the United States, Russia and Ukraine, but also European officials. “After all, Europe has the most to lose after Ukraine,” added.
On the other hand, he thinks Trump’s initiative has at least one positive aspect – The fact that the US President is pushing for talks about conflict settlement is better than if he was not at all.
