During his presidency, Donald Trump made it clear that he considered Ukraine to be "part of Russia." This was stated by Trumpʼs former advisor Fiona Hill in a new book by The New York Times reporter David Sanger, which will be released in the US on April 16.
The Guardian has obtained a copy of the book and is publishing an excerpt.
Fiona Hill was the senior director for Europe and Russia at the US National Security Council in 2017-2019.
"Trump has made it very clear that he believes that Ukraine and, of course, Crimea should be part of Russia. He really could not come to terms with the idea that Ukraine is an independent state," says ex-advisor Hill.
According to the author of Sangerʼs book, Trumpʼs view of Ukraine is "essentially identical" to the view of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — a year after Trump left the presidency.
Hill was a key witness in the first impeachment trial of Trump over his attempts to blackmail Ukraine. She is the co-author of the book "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin".
In the memoirs of former US national security adviser John Bolton, it was mentioned that Donald Trump constantly "grumbled and complained" about sanctions against Russia, although he publicly promoted them. He also wanted to cancel the sanctions imposed due to the poisoning of former CIA spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, because they were supposedly "too tough" on Putin, and he allegedly prevented the release of a statement criticizing Russia in connection with the tenth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Georgia.
At the same time, Putin himself, as reported in the memoirs, does not consider Trump a serious opponent and is convinced that he can easily manipulate him.
- Citing sources, The Washington Post wrote that Donald Trump wants to "persuade" Ukraine to cede some occupied territories to Russia if he becomes president. Trump has often boasted that, if elected president, he could supposedly negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours — even before his inauguration. But he repeatedly refused to clarify publicly how he would resolve the situation so quickly.