Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration are undecided on how they bring an end to the proxy war in Ukraine, and US support for Ukraine is expected to continue after Trump’s inauguration on January 20, Financial Times reported Thursday, citing two European officials.
The report noted that Trump’s special envoy to the conflict, Keith Kellog, said in an interview this week that the goal is to bring the war to a close within the first 100 days of the administration.
“I would like to set a goal on a personal and professional level — I would set it at 100 days and move all the way back,” Kellog said. “And figure a way we can do this in the near term, to make sure the solution is solid and it’s sustainable and that this war ends so that we stop the carnage.”
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have made clear that they’re both ready to talk with one another. At a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said he could understand one of Russia’s main gripes: NATO expansion and the promise of bringing Ukraine into the alliance.
“You know, a big part of the problem was Russia for many, many years, long before Putin said you could never have NATO involved with Ukraine. Now they’ve said … that’s been like written in stone,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
“Somewhere along the line, Biden said no, they should be able to join NATO. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that,” he added.
But it remains unclear what sort of proposals the Trump administration will make to Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed some ideas reportedly being discussed by the Trump team, which include sending European troops to Ukraine to oversee a ceasefire and Ukraine pledging not to join NATO for at least 20 years.
