Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov predicted that Ukraine would resist Donald Trump’s insistence on ending the war with Russia in the event that the former president returns to the White House.
“Time will tell,” Lavrov told reporters at the United Nations. “I doubt that the Ukrainians will be prepared to agree to any kind of settlement.”
Trump’s stated confidence that he could end the war overnight if reelected drew an anxious response from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who acknowledged last week his worry that Trump would try to dictate the outcome. Lavrov, who characterized Zelensky as “relatively rude when he commented on Trump’s comments,” maintained an agnostic outlook on Trump’s boast.
“There are lots of things that happen, lots of statements, day in, day out,” he said through a U.N. interpreter. “They’re published, and we can ask the same question in relation to those: Do you believe them? Or don’t you? And I don’t really want to play that game. I can’t believe something that is immaterial.”
Trump’s rocky relationship with Ukraine and NATO members contributed to his reputation during his term in the White House for having policy preferences congenial to Russian interests. Yet a senior Kremlin Security Council leader also described his presidency as a “period of disappointment” caused by a bipartisan consensus in the United States.
“Frankly, not only the Democrats did it, the Republicans did it as well,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after Trump left office.
Trump had a fraught relationship with Ukraine, anchored initially in his belief that Ukrainian officials interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton and worsened by Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to pressure Zelensky to make a corruption accusation against Joe Biden that would have aided Trump’s reelection campaign.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Yet he also was the first U.S. president to approve the provision of lethal aid to Ukraine. And the next president will face GOP pressure to continue the support.
“We cannot pretend that America is inoculated against the consequences of war in Europe,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Wednesday. “We can’t afford to harbor the notion that leaving Russian aggression unchecked would somehow enhance America’s posture in strategic competition with China. Accelerating Russian defeat in Europe is precisely what will help ensure we don’t wind up dealing with simultaneous aggression from adversaries in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.”