WASHINGTON — President Trump thinks Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants much more than what’s on the table in talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, according to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
“The experts think that if he could get the rest of Donetsk, then he [Putin] would be happy,” Wiles told Vanity Fair in August, according to a report published Tuesday. “Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.”
Trump’s team has been pushing Ukraine to give up some of the Donbas region, a key sticking point in the talks, and they’re now trying to sell Russia on the peace plan. Moscow has not yet agreed to these terms and Ukraine is loath to cede any territory without security guarantees from the United States.
Trump for months has been convinced Putin is hellbent on taking over the entirety of Ukraine with his nearly four-year-old war there — disagreeing with advisors who felt giving him Ukraine’s easternmost region would be enough, Wiles signaled.
A senior US official told The Post the same late last month as the latest US peace plan push was just kicking off. When asked what concessions Russia would have to make in a peace deal, the person said it was simply getting Russia to accept that they can’t take over all of Ukraine.
“I mean, look, everyone knows Vladimir Putin wants to take the whole country,’’ the official said of the Russian dictator. “That’s his been his long-sought goal. That is something he’s made quite clear. The president is very aware of that.”
Trump is not alone, according to the Vanity Fair report. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suspected similarly — at least in October — that even a maximalist deal forking over parts of the Donbas that Russia has been unable to seize in more than 11 years of war in that region would not be enough to stop Putin.
“There are offers on the table right now to basically stop this war at its current lines of contact, okay?” Rubio told Vanity Fair. “Which include substantial parts of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which they’ve controlled since 2014. And the Russians continue to turn it down.”
“And so…you do start to wonder, well, maybe what this guy wants is the entire country,” he added.
While other US officials claimed Monday that they believed Russia would accept the 20-point peace plan they’ve been hammering out with Ukraine, the Kremlin itself has not said it would approve the plan.
The reaction to Wiles’ comments has been stark, with some foreign policy experts and Ukraine advocates questioning why experts would believe Putin would stop fighting if only Ukraine capitulates on the eastern portion of its country.
“@realDonaldTrump is right. He should lead and push the Europeans to rebuild and buy American weapons for Ukraine to hold the line while bolstering NATO’s eastern front to deter further aggression,” Hudson Institute fellow and foreign policy analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs posted to X. “And crush Russia even more economically while backing Euros interdiction of the shadow fleet.”
The conflict is costing Moscow roughly 7,000 Russian lives a day as its economy hemorrhages.
“DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN! What ‘experts’ are saying Putin would be happy with just Donetsk?” wrote RT Weatherman Foundation President Meaghan Mobbs, who is also the daughter of Special Presidential Envoy Gen. Keith Kellogg. “POTUS is 100% right – Putin does want the whole country.”
“Which of his advisors or ‘experts; are undercutting POTUS’ instincts and running their own foreign policy track on his back?” she added on X.
Still, senior US officials were optimistic on a call with reporters on Monday, during which they said Trump’s goal with the peace plan is to reach “a conclusion to this conflict that really stops the Russians from moving west.”
“Under President Bush, Russia moves west. Under President Obama, Russia moves west. Under President Biden, Russia moves west,” an official said. “President Trump really wants to see this as an agreement that ends that for good.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
