Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday that he believes US President-elect Donald Trump cannot broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
Speaking in an interview with Politico, Kuleba argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not agree to a peace deal because he believes his country can achieve its objectives as part of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which marked its 1,000th day last week.
“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,” Kuleba said.
Kuleba further argued that Ukraine is not only a “personal obsession” for the Russian president, but it is also a means to accomplish his broader goal to “show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for.”
Kuleba said that one of his biggest fears is Trump’s potential withholding of weapons and ammunition from Kyiv, which he said would lead to a collapse of the front line in eastern Ukraine.
How the EU will react to Trump’s potential withholding of arms from Ukraine will be “crucial,” Kuleba further said, indicating that they can either follow Trump’s policy or “accept the fact that they have to bear greater share of responsibility.”
Kuleba denied that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could sign a deal involving ceding territory to Russia, not only because of the country’s constitution but also because it would mean “the end of Zelenskyy politically.”
The ex-foreign minister went on to say that he thinks the recent escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war will continue, also conveying his disappointment that many in the West have not grasped the conflict’s importance and its consequences.
“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,” he added.