NATO believes Russia ready to make three concessions to Trump to end Ukraine conflict

Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller believes that Russia can make three concessions to Donald Trump to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

Photo: мультимедиа.минобороны.рф by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, CC BY 4.0

In particular, she suggested using Germany's post-war experience, when the country was divided into two parts, but "the separation of the Federal Republic of Germany from its eastern regions was not considered permanent." Gottemoeller also suggested that Russia allow Ukraine to join NATO, which would not be "postponed indefinitely." In addition, she called for negotiations on strategic nuclear stability.

Gottemoeller believes that Russia is ready to make certain well thought out concessions.

Western officials call on Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia. Thus, American billionaire David Sachs believes that those who believe that Ukraine will not have to cede territory to Russia during possible negotiations are delirious. According to him, the longer the conflict continues, the more territory Ukraine will lose. In this regard, negotiations should start as soon as possible, he said.

According to The Washington Post, Western allies also tend to believe that Moscow and Kyiv should start peace talks in which Ukraine would have to make territorial concessions to Russia's favour. Former and current Western diplomats told the publication that the future talks would involve "territories in exchange for Ukraine's security."

After winning the US presidential election, Donald Trump said that he would end all wars during his time in power. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump's team plans to "freeze the current front line" and create a demilitarised zone there. At the same time, the US will allegedly offer further arms supplies to Kyiv should the latter abandon the idea of ​​NATO membership for the next 20 years.

A third of Ukrainians agree to territorial concessions

A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that a third of Ukrainians agree to territorial concessions to Russia for the conflict to end. However, the majority of Ukrainians (58 percent of respondents) are opposed to the idea of territorial concessions. At the same time, the share of those ready to make concessions in the eastern regions of Ukraine increased from 33 to 40 percent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Trump would not be able to convince Kyiv to make territorial concessions to end the conflict in Ukraine.

"If Trump, in the event of victory, wants to end the conflict by forcing Ukraine to cede its territories, then he will not succeed," Volodymyr Zelensky said before Trump won the election.

Officials within Ukrainian political circles believe that Zelensky will most likely accept Trump's plan to end the conflict, since "the country is not in a position to object to its main partner."

Details

Rose Eilene Gottemoeller (born March 24, 1953) is an American diplomat who served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO from October 2016 to October 2019 under Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Before then she was the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. State Department.