The US President Donald Trumpʼs deputy representative in Ukraine John Cole said that Washington does not rule out Ukraineʼs potential membership in NATO or a return to the 1991 borders. This contradicts the words of Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
He said this in a comment to Reuters.
"Itʼs still on the table right now," Cole said when asked if the US was considering Ukraineʼs accession to NATO.
And he added that Ukraine can reach the borders that existed before the war began in 2014 through negotiations. This possibility still exists.
Instead, Defense Secretary Hegseth had said the day before that returning to the pre-2014 borders was as unrealistic as Ukraine joining NATO. Hegseth later said that “everything is on the table” before negotiations on the war in Ukraine and that it was Trump who would decide what the concessions would be.
Following John Coleʼs comments, Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he did not believe Russia would "allow" Ukraine to join NATO and accused the administration of the former US President Joe Biden of raising the topic.
According to John Cole, Washington is still discussing with the Europeans and Ukrainians how best to end the war.
"The Europeans want this war to stop. They are more than willing to participate (in military support for Kyiv). There are doubts... about whether they are going to give it 100%, but everything I hear indicates that they are really ready to get in there," the official stressed.
Asked whether the US was giving too much to Putin up front, Cole replied: "Some people have been talking out of turn, but I donʼt think weʼre giving anything up."
"With Putin and the Russians, you donʼt know if theyʼre trying to beat us or if theyʼre being sincere. And then you sit down at the table and you quickly find out," he concluded.
What preceded
Donald Trump said on February 12 that he had spoken to Putin on the phone. They discussed Ukraine and agreed to instruct their teams to begin negotiations. According to the American president, the conversation with Putin was “long and very productive”.
"We agreed to work closely together, including mutual visits to our countries," the US president wrote.
After the call with Putin, Trump spoke by phone with Volodymyr Zelensky, to whom he conveyed the essence of the conversation with the Russian leader. The Ukrainian president said that he and the American leader discussed the possibilities of achieving peace, the willingness of their teams to work together, technological capabilities, including drones and other modern production.
In addition, the presidents recalled Zelenskyʼs conversation with the head of the US Treasury Department, who brought a draft agreement on minerals to Ukraine. The dialogue also touched on new agreements on security and economic and resource cooperation.
Donald Trump added that the conversation went "very well" and that Zelensky, "like President Putin, wants to achieve peace".
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