John Bolton, former US President Donald Trump's national security adviser, believes that Trump's statements about Ukraine's potential losses before the start of negotiations with Russia mean that Trump "has effectively surrendered to Putin".

Source : Bolton on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda

Details : Bolton stressed that "it is unconscionable to allow Russia to assault Ukraine’s sovereignty, recruit enemies like North Korea to aid in their fight, and then sell out the Ukrainians by conceding the loss of their territory and NATO security guarantees or membership".  

"By making these and others concessions before negotiations even started, Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin on Ukraine," he said.  

Bolton noted that he had warned many times that Trump would favour Russia in negotiations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

"Russia's military performance has been miserable, but Trump is vindicating Putin's decision to invade," Bolton pointed out. 

Bolton thinks that the harm and damage to US security interests "will extend well beyond Central Europe, as our adversaries in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific can plainly see".

Quote : "It is incumbent on US leaders to stand unequivocally with Ukraine and whatever NATO allies stick with Kyiv. It is not in our national interest to let the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine prevail. Shame on the Trump administration."  

Background :

• The new US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said on 12 February that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is not a realistic goal, and that the US does not consider NATO membership for Ukraine a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement of the war.
• "We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace... with a realistic assessment of the battlefield. We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective ," he said.
• On the evening of 12 February, US President Donald Trump had a telephone conversation with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, he and Putin agreed that they "want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine".
• Later the same evening, Zelenskyy said he had discussed further contacts with Trump during the conversation. He said that the long conversation with Trump was about the possibility of achieving peace and the willingness to work together at the team level.

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