Zelenskyy on Trump's idea to end Russo-Ukrainian war: does he really want to be a loser president?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Donald Trump, the former US president and current presidential candidate, could become a "loser president" and weaken US influence in the world if he forces Ukraine to a truce with Russia.
Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with The Guardian
Quote: "I don't quite understand: does he [Trump] really want to be a loser president afterwards? Let's imagine that Trump is the president and, for example, he decides to end the war at the expense of Ukraine. And somehow, in the dialogue, he gets confirmation from [Russian ruler Vladimir] Putin on the Russian side that this is a stop, that's it. The Ukrainians will not put up with this, but he can then say: ‘That's it, I'm not giving you any support, there are no weapons, there is no funding'. Maybe he will reach an agreement with some of his partners, and they will also stop [supporting Ukraine]. Of course, Ukraine cannot fight a multimillion-strong army without weapons. Let's just imagine it.
And let's imagine for a second... I think it's 100% likely that this will happen, but let's imagine that it's 10% likely that Putin will not stop after that. What will this new president of the United States look like for the whole world, then? He will then be very weak, and this is not about his personality but about the institutional capacity of the United States. They will become very weak, they will not be leaders of the world."
Details: Zelenskyy believes that the United States will still be mighty in the domestic economy in this case, but its international influence "will amount to zero".
"And then Putin will move on, realising that the United States is no longer such a [strong] player. And then other leaders of other countries, mostly authoritarian, will enter the arena. That's the end of the ceasefire, the beginning of what everyone is so afraid to talk about, a real World War III," the Ukrainian president warned.
Background:
- Future US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has often boasted that if elected president, he could negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. However, he has repeatedly refused to publicly elaborate on how he would make that happen.
- The Washington Post, citing sources, claimed that Trump seems to be seeking to push Ukraine to make concessions to Russia and transfer Ukrainian territories, in particular Crimea and Donbas, under its control. Trump's campaign adviser, Jason Miller, dismissed these details as fake.
- In April, CNN said Trump hopes to force Russia and Ukraine to start negotiations on a cessation of hostilities by pressuring them with the argument of further US military assistance.
- Trump's former adviser, Fiona Hill, said that while he was president of the United States, he made it clear that he believed Ukraine should be part of Russia.
- Trump himself has said that if he wins the election, he will try to help Ukraine but will simultaneously demand the same efforts from Europe.
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