FRANCE 24 spoke to Ukraine’s former foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. With Donald Trump back in the White House, many believe that the US is ready to hand Vladimir Putin a win in his war against Ukraine. “Has Ukraine’s position worsened? It did”, Kuleba first admitted, “but does it mean that we lost the war? No. We are far away from that”, he claimed. “We may be moving towards the ceasefire, but I wouldn’t say that we are close to it. And the ceasefire does not mean the end of the war,” Kuleba pointed out.
Last week, Putin said he agrees with the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that “questions” remain about the nature of a truce. Russian prerequisites currently include retaining Crimea as well as full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region. But would that be enough for Putin?
“Some believe that it’s enough to give Putin a piece of land and Ukraine’s neutrality, and he will accept that. But everything we know about President Putin and his ten years of aggression against Ukraine is that he came after the whole of Ukraine and not a part of it” Kuleba said.
“The fundamental mistake is to believe that you can give a bite, a finger to Putin so that he does not bite off the entire hand”, he added.
Will Ukraine ever join NATO?
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 increased Kyiv‘s push for NATO membership
In July 2023, President Joe Biden told CNN that Ukraine was not yet ready for NATO membership, saying that Russia’s war in Ukraine needs to end before the alliance can consider adding Kyiv to its ranks.
Trump now claims that Ukraine’s NATO membership bid is “unrealistic”.
“Trump openly said what President Biden thought”, Kuleba said, adding: “it’s unfortunate he (Trump) conceded a very important card in negotiations,” Kuleba added.
“But if we know anything about the NATO issue, it is that it can re-emerge at any given moment, depending on the circumstances” he said, warning: “this is why President Putin does not believe in a promise”.
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