Trump to announce in early February whether he blames Moscow or Kyiv for talk failure — Piontkovsky

He shared his opinions in an interview with Anton Borkovsky, host of the Studio West program, on Espreso TV.

“What position will we be in in early February? Trump will be forced to admit that he was unable to reach an agreement between Putin and Zelenskyy. He will have to start implementing his concept. As we remember, as an independent mediator, he said: ‘I will try to reconcile them, and if Putin does not agree, I will increase the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and if Ukraine does not agree, I will stop supplying weapons to Ukraine altogether,’” Piontkovsky said.

Every day there are statements from Trump's inner circle—from his vice president, Vance, from the man he is with even at night, Musk, from his favorite son, Donald — outrageous, insulting anti-Ukrainian remarks, such as claiming that Zelenskyy “robbed the United States of tens of billions of dollars.” It is obvious that Trump's sympathies lie with Putin. But it's not that simple, the political scientist believes.

“In Washington, there are real friends of Ukraine — Republicans, pro-Ukrainian members of Congress such as McCaul, Rogers, Turner, even Pompeo, whom Trump has demonstratively said he will not take into his cabinet, and Haley, a very strong wing of the Republicans who insists on supporting Ukraine. They have a majority in Congress, along with the Democrats. And Trump needs the support of the Republicans because the process of approving his nominees will begin. The Republicans have a very small advantage — three or four votes in either house. At the same time, the opposition from these pro-Ukrainian Reagan Republicans will not allow anyone to be confirmed; they have a serious lever of influence on Trump. Therefore, the pro-Ukrainian core of the Republicans will not allow Trump to simply declare Ukraine guilty and cut off aid,” the political analyst said.

He also noted that Europe is extremely frightened by the emergence of Trump and his philosophy of equidistance. Europe realizes that a U.S. refusal to help Ukraine is a catastrophic threat to itself. After all, if the Ukrainian army is left without support, it will have to fight on its own.

“Macron, British Prime Minister Starmer, and the future, I hope, German Chancellor Merz understand this very well. The Prime Minister of Italy also understands this. These leaders are already discussing sending their military personnel, especially pilots, and a large number of aircraft even if the Americans refuse,” Piontkovsky added.

According to him, in February the question of whether the West is able to defend itself will be resolved, as the situation is very clear: Ukraine, bleeding to death, is defending not only its sovereignty but also the independence of the West. 

“Europe is well aware of this. For 70 years, it has dreamed of creating a European army so that it would not depend on the United States. And this European army already exists — the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Europe cannot now commit suicide by leaving this army without support,” Piontkovsky said.

• On December 12, the Presidential Administration said that Ukraine is not ready to negotiate with Russia to end the war in the context of strong negotiating positions. This includes a lack of weapons and clear guarantees that Russia will not attack again.
• Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed confidence that Trump wants to end Russia's war against Ukraine as soon as possible.
• On December 16, Trump announced that “little progress” had been made in ending Russia's war against Ukraine.