MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. European countries are not seeking to end the conflict in Ukraine, and therefore they - along with Kiev - should not be at the negotiating table between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told TASS.
"I don't speak on behalf of the US government or any of this. This is my assessment as an independent analyst. When you're looking for a solution, you seek to eliminate the problem," the expert said. "Ukraine and the European Union are the problems. They're not part of the solution. So I don't believe they have a place at the table. They're the problem that the people at the table are trying to solve. Europe is not seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict," Ritter believes.
He added that European countries are using Ukraine as a tool to pressure Russia. "Ukraine exists only, in its current manifestation, only as a proxy, as a tool of Europe, of the West. Ukraine is not a sovereign state. It's not an independent entity. We should not view it as such," Ritter explained.
"Let's make it very clear — if the United States stops supporting Ukraine, the war is over. So if Russia and the United States can agree that the war needs to end, and Russia is willing to do things, and America is willing to do things, then this war will end, and it doesn't matter what Europe or Ukraine think, because they're the problem," he concluded.
On August 8, Trump announced that he expected to meet with the Russian president in Alaska on August 15. Later, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed the plan, saying the leaders would focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis .