Former NATO envoy says Trump still committed to Ukraine

Former US ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker rejected suggestions that the United States is preparing to abandon Kyiv in an interview with DW on Tuesday.

"I don't think President [Donald] Trump is going to walk away from Ukraine," Volker said, adding that Trump has made ending the war a high priority since returning to office, while urging Europe to shoulder more of the burden of European security matters.

Volker, who served as US special representative for Ukraine during the first Trump administration, pointed to Trump's calls for European countries to boost defense spending and purchase US weapons for Ukraine as evidence of pressure on allies to do more.

He said the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" summit demonstrated that Europe was responding to that call.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants a quick end to the war, Volker said, but the conflict continues because Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he can still prevail.

"The reality is this war continues because Putin wants it to," Volker said. "So far nothing has convinced him that he will never succeed. So, he keeps trying."

He said increasing military support for Ukraine and tightening financial pressure on Russia, including curbing oil and gas revenues, are necessary to force Putin toward a ceasefire.

"We can convince him that it is not worth the effort," he said.

Volker also addressed recent US action in Venezuela and noted that this might influence Putin to "make a similar claim about Ukraine that that is Russia's sphere of interest," akin to Trump's assertion of influence in the Western Hemisphere.

He said such notions need to be rejected because Ukraine is "clearly a part of Europe."

"It is an independent, sovereign state and not something just to be divvied up," he said.

Looking ahead, Volker said Ukraine remained a key priority for Trump, as the US president wants to succeed in bringing peace to Ukraine.

Volker said Trump wants to "get the credit for that, similar to the way he feels he brought peace to Gaza and ended that war, or that he ended the war between India and Pakistan."

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