Mike Pompeo, former US secretary of state, believes that the United States did not do enough to stop the war unleashed by Russia and restore peace in Ukraine in 2014.

Source:Pompeo during the second Black Sea Security Forum in Odesa, as reported by a correspondent for European Pravda

Details:Pompeo said that despite all efforts, US representatives failed to thwart the plans of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and prevent a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

"I regret that there was not more done in 2014, that there was not more done in 2022, and that deterrence was lost," he said. "And now the challenge is putting it back to a place. I was adjacent to the Minsk conversations (...) We’ve been at the negotiating table an awful lot, and there was no hammer." 

Pompeo acknowledged that it was "a different time" then and Russia's aggression was not as intense, but he pointed out: "If you went and looked at the debate issue papers from the Minsk conversations, they would look almost identical to the same conversations that are taking place today."

"So that must remind us all: when Vladimir Putin lays down his weapons for a moment, you can’t go back to Russian gas," Pompeo emphasised. "When Vladimir Putin lays down his weapons for a moment, there can’t be life as it once was." 

He also pointed out that the US cannot afford to abandon Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

"As for the deeper question about whether [Ukraine] is viewed as a pawn, I don't think that anyone believes that. I don't think anybody thinks, ‘Oh my goodness, we can sacrifice that and get peace’,’’ he said.

He pointed out that many members of the Republican Party have expressed views on this issue that are contrary to America's deep national interests.

"But I think they all also know that, in the end, there is no walking away from this for the United States. It is not the case where you can say, ‘Godspeed, you're on your own’. This will continue to chase all of us who believe in basic human dignity, property rights, all the indicia of sovereign nationhood that we will ultimately come to prevail," Pompeo stressed.

Background:

• While Pompeo was serving as US secretary of state, the Crimea Declaration was adopted and released on 25 July 2018, 10 days after the official meeting between Trump (during his first presidential term) and Putin in Helsinki.
• That document stated that "Russia, through its 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its attempted annexation of Crimea, sought to undermine a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states: that no country can change the borders of another by force".
• Meanwhile, when Trump returned to power in 2025, his administration repeatedly made controversial remarks about Crimea.
• In April, media reports indicated that the Trump administration had handed Ukraine a one-page document in Paris, which was presented as a "final proposal" for a peaceful settlement. Among other things, it supposedly stated that the United States was ready to recognise Russia's control over Ukrainian Crimea.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Kyiv does not recognise the Russian occupation of Crimea, and Trump criticised the statement, claiming that "Crimea was lost years ago" and that Zelenskyy's words are "very harmful to the peace negotiations".

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