Dear Commons Community,

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former 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”.

In an interview on CNN (see video above), 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 favor 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”.

Bolton said:  “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.”

Yesterday, US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said  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.

Sounds like Trump and company are raising the white flag!

Tony

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