Ukraine is losing window of opportunity to end full-scale war — diplomat

Diplomat and former Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., Valeriy Chaly, said this on Espreso TV.

He shared his view on how Donald Trump receives information.

“I have experience communicating with him. It’s unlikely that he consciously creates this whole narrative himself to avoid further escalation. It’s a mix — he receives information, and he picks what suits him at the moment. But the amount of information given to him wouldn’t allow him to say that Russian generals fled through the fields, because that goes beyond the realities of the war,” the diplomat said.

In his opinion, we cannot say right now that Ukraine failed diplomatically, which is why Donald Trump is speaking this way.

“No, but we are lagging in reaching out directly to him, his close circle, or his family, where influence might exist. Meanwhile, Stephen Vitkoff has visited Putin five times and returned with these phrases essentially fed into his ears. Even Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, was cited by Trump, saying Russia has always defeated all countries. That’s a lie. Russia has lost to Ukrainians many times in history. And I won’t even mention that it supposedly defeated all countries - that’s completely off the mark. Tsushima, Pearl Harbor... I understand he might not have used this immediately, but believe me, I’ve done this too,” Chaly said.

The former ambassador to the U.S. added that there are some things the U.S. president cannot avoid saying - things that serve his interests regarding Ukrainians.

“That’s why I’m somewhat confused about this; we can’t compete with the Russians - they have occupied his ‘big ear.’ But I must say these challenges absolutely require us to build a completely different tactic. And probably we need to adjust our strategy because we see that the window of opportunity to end the full-scale war is closing, and we are losing it,” he emphasized.

The diplomat noted that this is the worst-case scenario for Ukraine.

“If we don’t use the window of opportunity to end the full-scale war, it will drag on. What Donald Trump is doing puts us in a situation where we can’t accept that. Honestly, the more I hear about the meeting, the more negative it seems. To be frank, it would be better for everyone if it didn’t happen,” the diplomat concluded.

Background

On August 8, Bloomberg and WSJ reported that U.S. President Donald Trump may be willing to accept Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s terms to formally recognize Russian control over parts of occupied Ukrainian territories.

On the same day U.S. President Donald Trump said that a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine would involve some exchange of territories.

Diplomatic consultations between Ukraine and the U.S. ahead of the summit are ongoing virtually around the clock. Meanwhile, the NYT reports that the U.S. Secret Service has booked a six-room house in Anchorage, where the Trump-Putin meeting is likely to take place.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has stated that Ukraine and Russia will have to exchange some territories after Kyiv receives security guarantees.

It was later revealed that European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will have a phone call with Trump before his meeting with Russian leader Putin.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, August 11, made a number of statements at a briefing regarding the war in Ukraine and a meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.