[Text/Observer Network Yang Rong]
As former U.S. President Trump, a hard-liner on Ukraine, is about to return to the White House, Ukrainian President Zelensky urged the United States and other "international partners" to continue supporting Ukraine on the battlefield.
According to a report by the Ukrainian News Agency on November 16, Zelensky said in an interview with the Ukrainian Radio that day that Ukraine must become stronger before it can start peace talks with Russia. Ukraine has only received half of the military aid the United States promised to Ukraine. Less than.
"Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are possible only if Ukraine is not isolated and strong enough." Zelensky said, "If we negotiate with (Russian President) Putin under the current circumstances, without strengthening With its own strength, this was a failure for Ukraine from the beginning. This (kind of negotiation) has nothing to do with 'just peace.'"
reported that Zelensky pointed out that the position of US President-elect Trump is "very important." . He emphasized that the United States must maintain its position of supporting Ukraine and continue to identify Russia as an "aggressor." "This is one of the extremely important conditions for entering any negotiation platform. At the same time, it also needs to include the elements of our victory plan."
Talking about the US military aid to Ukraine, Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the two parties in the United States, but emphasized that There is still a lot of content yet to be delivered.
"Overall, Democrats and Republicans voted to approve $175 billion or $177 billion worth of various aid to Ukraine. The caveat is that those funds still need to be delivered." He said, "If you ask me, we How much assistance was received, I won't go into detail because the Department of Defense, Intelligence There are different reports from different agencies. I will say: We have not received half of it.”
Zelensky added that the half he said only refers to military aid, not including humanitarian aid, financial aid and targeted areas. "When I say we only get half of it, I mean less," he said. "Every penny counts... We are grateful for this, but we must also be honest: this is the aid we receive."
Zelensky also mentioned that the United States has also updated its weapons inventory and strengthened its weapons through aid to Ukraine. army abilities and gain experience in modern warfare. He said: "In many ways, they got their answers from us... Through the experience of another country, they accumulated experience for themselves. The same is true for the Europeans."
According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an American think tank, Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Ukraine has become the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. The U.S. Congress has passed five bills, providing Ukraine with a total of US$175 billion in various types of assistance.
Among them, US$106 billion is aid flowing directly to the Ukrainian government for budget support, military assistance and humanitarian support, of which military aid is worth approximately US$69.8 billion. Most of the remaining approximately $70 billion is used to fund various U.S. activities related to the war, with a small portion used to support other affected countries in the region.
cfr stated that most of the funds provided by the United States to Ukraine were used to support the domestic defense industry in the United States, including paying the costs of American factories and workers to produce various weapons. These weapons were both sent to Ukraine and used to replenish the U.S. military's inventory of weapons depleted by the war. An analysis from the American Enterprise Institute found that U.S. aid funds to Ukraine are being used in defense manufacturing in more than 70 U.S. cities.
"Trump began to seek 'major changes' in foreign policy before taking office, and Ukraine will feel the change of wind direction most strongly." Bloomberg reported last week that although there is still a long time before the inauguration, Trump Trump has begun trying to reshape Washington's policy toward Ukraine.
According to a report by the New York Times on the 9th, Trump had a phone conversation with Zelensky after he won the election. During the call, he once handed his phone to the billionaire and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Trump’s campaign. Musk, the "big financier", posted on social media about "Trump's Ukraine plan" and said, "The time for warmongers to make profits is over."
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly stated that if he came to power, he would resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours. According to the US "Wall Street Journal", Trump has a bunch of Russia-Ukraine peace plans in front of him, but he has not yet made a decision. The
report quoted three well-informed people close to Trump as saying that one of the options is for Ukraine to promise not to join NATO for at least 20 years; in exchange, the United States will continue to assist Ukraine and provide security guarantees. In addition, according to this plan, the Russian-Ukrainian front line will be basically locked, and an 800-mile (approximately 1,300 kilometers) long demilitarized zone will be established with the consent of both parties.
However, in the "Victory Plan" submitted by Zelensky to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine in October, the invitation to "immediately formally join NATO" ranked first. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova previously dismissed Zelensky's "Victory Plan" as "Ukraine's unfortunate plan" and accused Zelensky of pushing NATO into direct conflict with Russia.
On November 15, German Chancellor Scholz had a phone call with Putin, becoming the first leader of a major Western country to directly contact Putin since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Kremlin said the call took place at the initiative of Germany, and that Putin told Scholz that any agreement should reflect "new territorial realities." A German government spokesman said Scholz urged Russia to resume negotiations as soon as possible and end the conflict. Zelensky strongly protested the call, saying it "opened Pandora's box."
It is worth mentioning that the US "Washington Post" quoted multiple "informed people" on the 10th that Trump had spoken to Putin on the 7th local time and expressed to the latter that he hoped to "resolve the war in Ukraine as soon as possible." . However, this news was denied by Russia on the 11th. The aforementioned report also stated that the Ukrainian government was aware of the phone call between Putin and Trump and did not object to the call. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also refuted the report as "false."
This article is an exclusive manuscript of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.
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