Trump uses threats to gain leverage in talks with Russia - American diplomat

This opinion was shared by Daniel Fried, the former coordinator of the State Department of the United States on Selection Policy, the legendary American diplomat, in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Espreso TV channel.

“I think it is wrong for an American president to sound like he was speaking as a European imperialist in the 19th century. I do not think Trump's threats are meant seriously except as negotiating leverage, but I think they do damage. I will not defend them. I think it's simply wrong. Fortunately, Trump has not shown this degree of, I will call it irresponsibility, with respect to Ukraine and Russia. There, at least, the policy signals seem more reasonable. Not always what I would prefer, but more reasonable,” Fried stated.

Keith Kellogg will be the special envoy for Ukraine and Russia in the Trump administration. It has been announced that he plans to visit Kyiv in January. The American diplomat says that this is a good idea because, so far, President Trump's and General Kellogg's remarks about Ukraine suggest that they are going to push for a ceasefire in place and some sort of security arrangements for Ukraine.

“We can discuss what sort of security arrangements there can be. In my view, the best security for Ukraine would be full NATO membership. The Trump people seem to have something else in mind. But before we discuss the details, it's important to remember that so far Vladimir Putin shows no indication whatsoever in being willing to engage in a serious diplomatic process to end the war. He and his spokesmen are still demanding Ukraine's surrender as a precondition for discussions. This is not serious.

So my first question — to myself — is, what will the Trump team do if it becomes clear that Russia has no interest in serious discussions? I should add that the Ukrainian government and President Zelenskyy have shown some wisdom in accepting the principle of negotiations. They have said yes to Trump. Russia and Putin are saying no to Trump. And if the Russian position continues to be a hard-line position, what will Trump do?” Daniel Fried added.

According to the diplomat, experience shows that Putin won't be an honest or good-faith negotiator with Trump. He’ll say things that aren’t true, make false accusations, and filibuster.

“In short, I do not have confidence that these conversations can be useful if  Trump is looking for some sort of deal with Putin. The talks can be useful if Putin, as I suspect he will be, is so demanding and aggressive that Trump concludes that he has to give Ukraine even more support and put even more pressure on Russia rather than simply allow Putin to bully him. But this is speculation. I don't know how these talks will proceed. I think that it would be a mistake to count too much on one meeting to resolve anything. I think that Putin will respect only what the Russians and Soviets used to call the correlation of forces. And therefore, the best policy is to continue to put pressure on Russia and help Ukraine in the hopes that the balance of forces will shift in Ukraine's favor,” Daniel Fried concluded.

• Ukrainian National Guard Reserve Major Oleksii Hetman said that the U.S. and other countries were attempting to conduct preliminary negotiations with Ukraine and Russia to offer compromise options for halting the war.