Trump makes scandalous statement about Ukraine and NATO
26 February 23:38
US President Donald Trump has said that Ukraine should forget about joining NATO. After all, it was probably because of the country’s desire to become a member of the Alliance that Vladimir Putin decided to start a war. This is reported by Sky News, Komersant ukrainskyi informs
“I’m not going to talk about it now. I can say, forget about NATO. That’s probably the reason why it all (the war in Ukraine – ed.) started,” Trump said.
Answering a journalist’s question about how to negotiate with Putin, the US president said that “he’s a very smart guy, a very cunning person.”
“I’ve dealt with some very bad people, but I’ll tell you what, in this case, he had no intention, in my opinion, of settling this war. I think he wanted all of this. When I was elected, we talked, and I think we’re going to come to an agreement,” Trump added.
According to him, if he had not been elected president of the United States, Putin would have simply continued to “go through Ukraine.”
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Trump’s position on Ukraine
During the election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly said that he would stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. This deadline has already passed.
Also during the election, the media spread the so-called “Trump Plan”. The plan was that the United States would use its influence to stop the war, taking into account the status quo. To do this, Trump would force Putin and Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table. If Putin does not agree to negotiate, the United States will give Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win on the battlefield. If Zelenskyy refuses to negotiate, the United States will completely stop helping Ukraine.
This plan, in its various variations, included a provision that Russia would retain the territories it temporarily occupied and that Ukraine would not join NATO.
However, later Trump seemed to “forget” about this plan. In particular, he voiced scenarios in which he would force Russia to capitulate due to the decline in world oil prices.
After Trump was elected President of the United States, one of his advisors, Brian Lanza, said that Ukraine should forget about Crimea. Trump’s entourage, however, was quick to deny this statement and said that Lanza could not speak on his behalf.
Currently, the US Special Representative for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is talking about 100 days within which he wants to reach some kind of agreement. Of these, 37 days have already passed. During this time, the US Presidential Administration has established contact with the Kremlin, an American envoy has traveled to Moscow, and a meeting of the highest level negotiators has taken place in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine was not present at this meeting.
Meanwhile, in exchange for military support, US President Donald Trump demanded $500 billion worth of rare earth metals from Ukraine. He said that the US should have access to Ukraine’s natural resources, regardless of whether Kyiv manages to reach a peace agreement with Russia.
