Ex-Minister Kuleba skeptical about peace prospects during Trump’s presidency

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to bring a peace deal to Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin still believes he can achieve all his goals, ex-Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Politico in an interview published on Nov. 27.

According to Ukraine’s former diplomacy chief, Ukraine is a “personal obsession for Putin” but also a way to “show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for.”

Trump has criticized military support provided to Ukraine by the Biden administration and pledged to get the U.S. “out” of the war. While the details of his plans remain elusive, some reports indicate this would entail forcing Ukraine to cede territory and at least temporarily give up on its NATO accession plans.

Trump’s approach is more likely to starve Ukraine of weapons and cause the front to collapse, allowing Russian forces to move up to the cities of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava, Kuleba said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also cannot sign a peace deal that would recognize occupied territories as Russian and forego Kyiv’s NATO aspirations, as such a step would be against the Constitution and Zelensky’s political end, Kuleba believes.

Zelensky recently told Fox News that Ukraine would never recognize Russian occupation but admitted that Crimea would have to be liberated through diplomatic means. He also appealed to the international community to help bring about a diplomatic and just end of the war next year.

While voicing hopes that Putin will make a mistake in handling Trump that will antagonize the soon-to-be U.S. president, Kuleba said that Europe’s stance will be decisive.

Leading European countries like the U.K., France, and Poland pledged to ramp up their support for Kyiv. The situation in Germany, Ukraine’s largest European donor, remains uncertain as the country is heading toward snap elections in February.

The ex-minister also complained that while Russia found allies willing to send their own troops, like North Korea, Kyiv’s partners are unwilling to even commit sufficient weapons. Kuleba concluded that, unlike Russia and Ukraine, the West does not have a clear goal and does not know what it is fighting for.