PARIS, December 17. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump will try to resolve the conflict in Ukraine by sacrificing Kiev’s interests, US political scientist Francis Fukuyama opined.
"Trump has promised to reach a peace deal, but it will inevitably come at the expense of Ukraine," the prominent expert told the French magazine Le Point in an interview. "The Ukrainians are hinting that they would be willing to give up some of their territory to Rusia in exchange for NATO membership," the analyst added. Europe will have "a hard time accepting" the invitation for Kiev to join the alliance. Commenting on the role of Europe in providing "security guarantees to Ukraine in the future," the expert said "one could imagine a rotation of NATO troops in Ukraine, or new promises of equipment, training."
According to Fukuyama, Trump "has little regard for [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky and even seems to have contempt for most democratically elected European leaders." While the United States will hardly withdraw from NATO under Trump, the incoming president may "significantly weaken" the alliance through other means. Thus, Trump has already hinted that he may disregard NATO’s mutual defense clause, Fukuyama said.
On December 16, Trump said that Zelensky should be ready to agree to make a deal to end the Ukraine conflict. Also, the Republican actually signaled that, in his view, Kiev does not need to try and retake some of Ukrainian soil lost to Russia. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin set out the country’s conditions for resolving the situation in Ukraine. Among them are the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya and Kiev’s refusal to join NATO. In addition, Russia wants all Western sanctions against it lifted and demands that Ukraine commit to a non-aligned and nuclear-free status.