Ukraine-Russia, Trump’s ‘message’ scares Zelensky: “Peace, not victory”

Ukraine is pushing for a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trumpworking on a peace plan to end the war with Russia. Alarming messages are arriving from the entourage of the new American president for Kiev, which fears a reduction in support for the Stars and Stripes against Vladimir Putin. Joe Biden meanwhile sends hundreds of interceptor missiles to Kiev before leaving the White House.

Trump’s victory in the American elections inevitably changes the picture of the conflict and relations between Washington and the two countries at war. For months, during the election campaign, the new president of the United States said and reiterated that he would favor a rapid agreement to put an end to the conflict. The plan being developed, according to the Wall Street Journal, involves the creation of a non-militarized zone along the front, no American military presence and Ukraine’s commitment not to join NATO for at least 20 years.

For Kiev, which has systematically rejected the hypothesis of territorial sacrifices, it is a wake-up call. Also for this reason, after the telephone contact between the two presidents on Wednesday (with Elon Musk on the line), the Ukrainian government is organizing a meeting between Zelensky and Trump, as announced by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. “The dialogue between Trump and Zelensky has already been established – said Sybiha – We are open to further cooperation”.

Trump, who in his first post-vote statements opened up contacts with Putin, in the phone call with Zelensky he expressed his intention to consolidate the collaboration. While waiting for a further comparison, the perimeter of the American vision is outlined in the words of Bryan Lanza, a Republican advisor who worked for the new American president’s campaign.

Trump’s message

Trump expects “a realist vision for peace” from Zelensky: the next administration is oriented to focus on the objective of achieving peace in Ukraine and not on putting Kiev in a position to regain the territories conquered by Russia. “And – warns Lanza – if President Zelensky comes to the table saying, we can only have peace by getting Crimea back, he will demonstrate that he is not serious. Crimea is gone“.

The reconquest of the peninsula, underlines the advisor who has worked with Trump since 2016, is an unrealistic objective and above all “it is not an objective of the United States”. “If this is your priority, getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you can do it yourself,” Lanza’s peremptory message. “What we will say to Ukraine is: do you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision for peace. It is not a vision of victory, but a vision of peace. And let’s start talking honestly”, he concludes. From the team that deals with Trump’s arrival at the White House comes the brake with the words of an anonymous spokesperson: “Lanza does not work for the president and does not speak for him”.

Biden’s move

Between one clarification and another, the change in panorama compared to Joe Biden’s line is evident. The outgoing administration, which also did not give Kiev the green light to hit targets on Russian territory with long-range missiles, is trying to bid farewell with a final supply to the Ukrainian armed forces. The United States is accelerating the delivery of more weapons before the Trump era begins. The plans revealed by the Wall Street Journal highlight that the PEntagon is sending over 500 interceptors to Kiev for the Patriot and Nasams defense systems, which are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

Messages, requests and signals alternate between Washington and Kiev. In Moscow, for now, things are going straight forward. Russia continues to push in Donetsk, the hottest sector of the front, with the forcing that has been putting Kiev’s soldiers in difficulty for the past week. If Ukraine has to deal with the difficulties of shoring up units and ensuring adequate replacement on the front line, Putin’s army has no human resources problems and, if it does, it makes up for it by deploying thousands of North Korean soldiers.

Putin waits

The Russian president has just signed the law ratifying the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea. It is on the basis of this document that Kim Jong-un has sent thousands of soldiers to deploy in the war against Ukraine in recent weeks.

Moscow, therefore, says it is ready to listen to Trump’s proposals to end the conflict but is in no hurry and is not budging on its conditions: the territories conquered and declared annexed will not be returned. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warns that there is no “easy solution”, considering continued US assistance to Kiev and you suspect that the tycoon’s promises are nothing more than electoral rhetoric.

“We believe that some of his promises, in which he spoke of a rapid resolution of the situation in Ukraine, are nothing more than rhetoric,” he says ‘challenging’ the new president. “It is clear that there cannot be a simple solution to this problem or to the problems associated with what is happening in and around Ukraine – he adds – The US administration should take these signals very seriously, both the outgoing one and the future one. There is no opportunism here and our interests do not depend on who occupies the Oval Office in the White House.”