Trump thought Ukraine ‘must be part of Russia’ during presidency, book says
www.theguardian.com
Ex-president ‘could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state’, former adviser Fiona Hill tells author

As president, Donald Trump “made it very clear” that he thought Ukraine “must be part of Russia”, his former adviser Fiona Hill says in a new book about US national security under threat from Russia and China.

“Trump made it very clear that he thought, you know, that Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia,” Hill, senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US national security council between 2017 and 2019, tells David Sanger, a New York Times reporter and author of New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West.

“He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state.”

This, Sanger writes, meant Trump’s view of Ukraine was “essentially identical” to that of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who would order an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a year after Trump left office.

  •  t3rmit3   ( @t3rmit3@beehaw.org ) 
    6•2 months ago

    Vlad was hoping Trump would get re-elected, and further isolate Ukraine from Western support. When Trump lost to Biden, Putin rolled the dice with his failed headshot attempt.

    Now he’s moved on from relying on Trump, to relying on various congresspeople to deteriorate US support for Ukraine. Since he’s got a bunch of them in his pocket, spouting his propaganda, he doesn’t even need Trump to be president, and he can still kill US aid to Ukraine (and do it without Trump’s clumsy extortion attempts on a recorded phone call).

  •  AutoTL;DR   ( @autotldr@lemmings.world ) BEnglish
    5•2 months ago

    🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

    Click here to see the summary

    “Trump made it very clear that he thought, you know, that Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia,” Hill, senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US national security council between 2017 and 2019, tells David Sanger, a New York Times reporter and author of New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West.

    The book appears with the Ukraine war grinding into its third year but with $60bn of new US military aid to Kyiv blocked by far-right Republicans in the US House, acting in accordance with Trump’s wishes as he runs to defeat Joe Biden in a presidential election rematch and return to power.

    Biden and other senior figures have also condemned Trump’s words in support of Putin, including a stunning promise to “encourage Russia to do what the hell they want” to US Nato allies he deems financially delinquent.

    In Washington in February, Hill told a conference staged by anti-Trump conservatives that Trump “idolises” Putin for his autocratic leadership and longevity in power.

    She also said she had spoken to European leaders at the Munich security conference, finding them nervously preparing for a possible second Trump administration.

    The result of growing qualms about Trump, his attitude to Russia and other idiosyncrasies, Hill said in February, “is that [European leaders] have started to lose faith in the United States.

    Saved 66% of original text.