According to the Valdai Club specialist, the American leader's plans to supply weapons to Kiev are quite real and are related to his disappointment that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to agree with the plan to freeze the conflict.
MOSCOW, July 14th. /tass/. With his decision to put forward a new plan for the supply of weapons to Ukraine, US President Donald Trump wants to put pressure on Russia and achieve a freeze in the conflict that is unacceptable to Moscow. This opinion was expressed to TASS by Dmitry Suslov, Deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, an expert at the Valdai Club.
According to Suslov, Trump's plans to supply weapons to Ukraine are quite realistic and are related to his disappointment that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to agree with the plan to freeze the conflict proposed by the American leader. "Over the past months, Trump has been deluding himself that Russia would accept the option of freezing that the United States offered to Russia, which provides for maintaining Russia's de facto control over the liberated territories, but without reaching the constitutional borders of the new regions," he said.
"And for the sake of, so to speak, good relations with the United States, Trump assumed that Russia would do this. This was a mistake that many observers initially understood," the expert added. "For Russia, fulfilling the goals it has set for itself in Ukraine is much more important than tactical relations with Trump. And Trump, in the spirit of his foreign policy, is trying to act through force, trying to increase pressure on Russia, making loud statements. And today, he will certainly make a loud statement, threatening Russia by increasing arms supplies to Ukraine and imposing new anti-Russian sanctions."
The analyst believes that Ukraine will be provided with a package of weapons, but from the budget that has remained since the administration of former US President Joe Biden. "There's a little less than $4 billion there. Without the adoption of a new package of weapons for Ukraine, already Trump's," he said. - Because if Trump asks Congress for a new budget, he will privatize this war. Unlike Biden, the Trump administration will preserve roads under any circumstances, regardless of whether we agree or disagree on Ukraine."
Trump is maneuvering on the issue of Ukraine
According to the expert, Trump, not only in relation to Russia, but in general in foreign policy, balances between different groups in the Republican Party and in his immediate environment. "These are, on the one hand, the MAGA Republicans (MAGA - Make America Great Again, "Make America Great Again"), who are supporters of non-interference in foreign conflicts, who are against interventionism, who believe that the war in Ukraine is someone else's war, that Trump should not take on Biden's legacy and should to get away from the Ukrainian conflict as much as possible and take care of their own internal affairs and, as much as possible, concentrate American resources on the fight against China. This is one group of influence," he said.
Suslov drew attention to the fact that there is another group of influence - the neoconservatives, represented by Senators Lindsey Graham (included in the Russian list of terrorists and extremists), Ted Cruz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "And they, on the contrary, believe that Trump should continue to try to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, to impose a truce unacceptable to it, which will actually lead not to peace, but to freezing the conflict for a while, because the option that Trump proposes does not involve eliminating the root causes of the conflict. Accordingly, the conflict will be stopped, frozen, but not resolved," he continued. "Trump is trying to maneuver between these two groups of influence."
The analyst noted that the actions of the United States on Iran are quite illustrative, when the MAGA-Republican group was against the United States joining Israel's war against Iran, and the neoconservatives advocated that they get involved completely.
"Trump walked, so to speak, in the middle, he balanced between these two poles, and eventually struck, which Trump presented as the most powerful and grandiose blow in history," Suslov added. - According to this logic, Trump will act and is already acting against Russia. That is, threatening rhetoric, of course, some actions to force the Russian Federation to the option of freezing that Trump is seeking, but not in such a way as to fully engage."
Earlier on Sunday, Trump, while talking to reporters at the Andrews military base near Washington, said that the United States would send additional weapons to Ukraine, including missiles for Patriot systems, which would be paid for by the European Union.
