“Time bomb”. In case of freezing, the war will explode with new force: how to avoid this scenario – interview with Kostenko

— Donald Trump, despite the fact that he is only the newly elected president, is already conducting his foreign policy towards Russia, the war in Ukraine. And even the press writes that he spoke with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, that he asked him not to escalate, whatever that means. I think more details will appear. What do you and your colleagues expect from Donald Trump now?

– First of all, I would not pay much attention to all the statements that are now coming from his close circle or when someone reposts some tweets, some hints. It is necessary to wait for official statements when Donald Trump begins to perform his duties. Then each of his statements will be official and then you can talk. All that is now… Today they speak, tomorrow they canceled, then say that they did not mean it. Therefore, it will be necessary to rely more on official statements.

But I don’t like the signals that are coming. In the sense that we see that the US very quickly decided to give us a certain number of missiles that were very difficult to knock out before, the same missiles for the Patriot; a certain number of weapons, funds which [надавалися] gradually, but now everyone is trying to give very quickly.

These are the signals that mean that the administration [чинного президента США Джо] Biden understands that there may be problems and some moves by Trump that will not benefit even their policy. If they helped us (thank you very much), but not fully; it seems as if they expect everything to be bad in general.

That’s why I don’t like these signals. And in general, we will evaluate when Trump takes office.

I still hope that the right steps will be taken, and the interests of Ukraine will be supported, because this is a geopolitical issue, an issue of world security. If one of the countries gives slack now, allows someone to occupy the territories or simply take them, stop at least on the territories they occupy, and try to pass it off as “you take them and don’t go any further”; it will be a defeat, first of all, not just for the USA, but for the entire civilized world, which tried, gave the opportunity, helped, and Russia still achieved that… Not all the goals they wanted, but they will still represent that they achieved.

And my opinion. We have heard claims of an 800-mile zone—all along the front line, I understand. If they stop it now, no matter how it sounds… Many of our viewers think: let’s stop it somehow, so that the war just stops. I’ll just say that after a certain time it will start with a new force, that’s a fact. Look at Chechnya, Georgia, others [країни]where Russia, when it cannot fulfill its tasks the first time, leaves, regroups, strengthens and then achieves its goals.

And will we be allowed if this happens, [битися]? Will they also give weapons, allow them to purchase some components, develop their military-industrial complex? This is a very big question.

Therefore, we carefully observe. And the main thing here is to act in conditions that support the interests of Ukraine.

— Ukraine rightly demands the return of all its territories, and all the demands that the Ukrainian side has been demanding to fulfill over the past 2.5 years. But there is a reality. What do we see? Ukraine is very difficult, barely holding the front in Donbas. We don’t know what will happen in Kurshchyna right now – Russia has concentrated 50,000 troops there, including North Korean ones. There is Donald Trump, who became the president, and whose team does not hide that they seek peace, but they make it clear that they do not seek to support Ukraine to regain its territories. There’s even this latest news about Trump’s call to Putin, WP writes: “Trump made it clear to Putin that he would support a peace deal that would have kept Russia’s occupied Ukrainian territories.” Can Ukraine afford to say no in such conditions, if such an offer is actually made by Trump or his team? Whether it can quickly find resources somewhere – at least to maintain the defense, not the offensive – is probably less realistic.