'Trump's Rhetoric Will Change After This Meeting'

• 20.02.2025, 20:41

What a plan is being carried to Washington by Macron and Starmer.

For several days in a row, we have been witnessing the harsh rhetoric of US President Donald Trump against Ukraine.

Is this a tough bargain or is the US withdrawing from support for Ukraine? This and other questions were asked by the Charter97.org website to Mykhailo Samus, a military expert, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network and an expert of the Ukrainian Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies.

— In fact, this is Trump's negotiation strategy. He has already, in my opinion, come into conflict with all his neighbors and allies. I would not say that the results are positive. I emphasize, unfortunately, I have not seen a single effective action of Trump, but it has been exactly a month since the inauguration.

From the point of view of Ukraine, apparently, he will continue to try to change the position of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Who instructs him, gives information — it is not yet clear. Clearly, this will be another Trump fiasco.

Even if Zelensky wanted to make concessions, the Ukrainians would not allow him to do it. I am sure that President Zelensky will maintain the same position.

I predict that next week Trump will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He will be offered some kind of plan, and after that Trump's rhetoric will change dramatically.

It will offer Ukraine something close to the position of Britain and France. After that, President Zelensky will already speak with Trump on a different level, more constructively, rather than in the language of threats.

In Ukraine, they understand that Trump is problematic, but this has nothing to do with us. Nothing has changed for us. Missiles and Shaheds attack Kyiv every day.

We are at war, we don't care what Trump says. Yes, the United States is turning into some kind of ridiculous country, but, unfortunately, this happens even with powerful states. They also have difficult periods in history. We need to continue to defend ourselves against Russia, so nothing much has changed for us.

Yes, maybe the United States will stop its assistance to Ukraine, but we will stand it with Europe. If the United States does not want to participate in economic projects in Ukraine, the reconstruction of the country, then this is their problem. Everyone selects the way.

— European countries are considering sending peacekeepers to Ukraine. How real is the plan? How many troops should be deployed?

— The fact is that you can not use the word "peacekeepers". Because a peacekeeping mission takes place only when both parties agree to it.

That is, Ukraine and Russia must agree that someone between them should stand up and carry out some stabilization or monitoring activities. When they start talking about a certain number of forces, we understand that even if we supply a million people, this will in no way interfere with the missile strikes of Ukraine on the Russian Federation or the Russian Federation on Ukraine, the actions of drones and so on.

Ground forces are, of course, interesting, but if Ukraine and Russia want to continue fighting, then, again, at least a million, at least two million Europeans, Indians or Chinese will not change anything.

This is a high-intensity war, which cannot be stopped simply by peacekeeping efforts, by the contingent. There must be political will, guarantees, only after that ground forces can be used for monitoring. And then, mainly by technical means.

The plan that The Telegraph published, I understand, will be presented to Trump personally next week, primarily by Starmer and Macron (apparently, the President of France supports it).

According to the plan, the main locations of the Europeans (French, British and others) will be far from the contact line: it will be Poltava, Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. This, again, is the information of The Telegraph, and there will be Ukrainian troops on the front line.

I emphasize that no one can stand there except for the Ukrainian troops, but at the same time there may be international, European forces, the same British Expeditionary Force. ---- If under their auspices, then Britain will be the leader there. In general, everything develops.

At the same time, the main monitoring will be carried out by technical means, satellites, drones of this mission. Foot patrols there clearly won't make sense. 1200 km of the front will not be bypassed, so everything can be controlled by technical means. It will be clear which side goes where, what it shoots, launches, and so on. Plus, of course, there must be air patrols and patrols by ships of the Black Sea in order for the situation to be stable.

— President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy made two statements about Belarus at the Munich Conference. First: Belarus today is a springboard for a new Russian offensive. Perhaps Moscow will try to attack Europe. Second: the security border of Europe should pass along the eastern borders of Belarus and Ukraine. How to understand his statements?

— Known information that Russia and Belarus are preparing to conduct the Zapad-2025 exercises. According to our information, Russia can send different numbers of troops to Belarus under the guise of these exercises, so the Ukrainian intelligence is closely monitoring this. If there are more than 15.000, then Russia is preparing a combat operation.

If less than 15.000, then it is unlikely that the Russians will be able to conduct any operations against Ukraine or other countries.

Belarus is constantly under our very close control. If there are any aggressive movements, Ukraine is absolutely ready to neutralize them.