Senior Trump advisor says Zelenskyy must present "realistic vision for peace", claims "Crimea is gone"
Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, has announced that the new administration will focus on achieving peace in Ukraine rather than helping the country regain the territories occupied by Russia.
Source: Lanza on the BBC World Service's Weekend programme; BBC
Details: Lanza, a Trump adviser since 2016 and a Republican strategist, indicated that the incoming Trump administration plans to ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to detail his own "realistic vision for peace."
Quote from Lanza: "And if President Zelenskyy comes to the table and says, well we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows to us that he's not serious...
When Zelenskyy says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace once Crimea is returned, we've got news for President Zelenskyy: Crimea is gone... And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you're on your own."
Details: He refrained from mentioning the occupied territories in Ukraine's east but asserted that Ukraine’s liberation of Crimea was unrealistic and "not the goal of the United States".
Importantly, Ukraine has never requested that the United States send troops to engage against Russia – only for military aid and support.
Lanza expressed deep admiration for the Ukrainian people, describing them as having "the hearts of lions". However, he emphasised that the United States' primary focus was "peace and to stop the killing".
"What we're going to say to Ukraine is, you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision for peace. It's not a vision for winning, but it's a vision for peace. And let's start having the honest conversation," he said.
The Trump adviser also criticised the support that the Biden-Harris administration and European countries have provided to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"The reality on the ground is that the European nation states and President Biden did not give Ukraine the ability and the arms to win this war at the very beginning and they failed to lift the restrictions for Ukraine to win," Lanza said.
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