LONDON, November 9. /TASS/. Ukraine should accept Donald Trump's proposed "realistic vision for peace" with Russia instead of thinking about returning territory, Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to the US president-elect, told the BBC.
"And if [Ukraine's outgoing] President [Vladimir] Zelensky comes to the table and says, well we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows to us that he's not serious," Lanza said. "We've got news for President Zelensky: Crimea is gone. And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you're on your own," he added, without mentioning other territories lost by Ukraine.
According to Lanza, a future Trump administration will focus precisely on the task of achieving peace, rather than on providing Ukraine with counteroffensive capabilities.
"What we're going to say to Ukraine is, you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision for peace. It's not a vision for winning, but it's a vision for peace. And let's start having the honest conversation," he pointed out.
Lanza also criticized the Democratic administration's policy toward Ukraine. The adviser said that the current situation on the battlefield shows that "the European nation states and [incumbent] President [Joe] Biden did not give Ukraine the ability and the arms to win this war at the very beginning and failed to lift the restrictions for Ukraine to win.".