Bryan Lanza, advisor to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, stated in an interview broadcast this Saturday (9) that the new government’s priority will be to restore peace in Ukraine, and not to restore the territories that the country lost, such as Crimea.
The Republican Party strategist told the BBC that the Trump administration will ask Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a “realistic vision for peace.”
“And if President Zelenskiy comes to the table and says, ‘well, we can only have peace with Crimea,’ he shows us that he is not serious. Crimea is gone,” he said. “And if your priority is to take Crimea back and have American soldiers fighting to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.”
He stated that the priority is “peace and an end to the deaths”.
“What we will say to Ukraine is: do you know what you are seeing? What do you see as a real prospect for peace? It is not a vision for winning, but a vision for peace. Let’s start having an honest conversation,” he said.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, after an uprising that forced the then pro-Moscow president to flee. More than two and a half years after launching a widespread invasion of the nation, Russian forces maintain control of just under 20% of its territory.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly said that peace is not possible until all Russian forces are expelled and all territories seized by Moscow, including Crimea, returned. His “plan for victory”, presented last month, maintains this idea and also the nation’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), something Russia has long criticized.
During the campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to the war “in one day,” but he did not say how he would do it.
Zelenskiy and Trump spoke by phone this week, after the election, in a conversation with the participation of billionaire Elon Musk, according to press reports.
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