“Oleksandr Krayev, an expert of the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council, told UNIAN what was behind the sharp statements of Donald Trump and other Republicans against Ukraine and its president.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Mr. Oleksandr, how, in your opinion, should Ukraine react to Donald Trump’s latest statements, Speaker Mike Johnson’s letter to Volodymyr Zelensky demanding the dismissal of the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, and generally to anti-Ukrainian rhetoric during the election campaign in the States?
Now everything has really become complicated and very serious. First, regarding the ambassador. Here the question is about our subjectivity in international politics. The question of whether we can defend ourselves, who represents us and how our diplomacy works further…
If there is a problem, yes, allies can tell us directly that there is a problem here. This is normal. This is called partnership. But, at the same time, the allies should not tell us literally in detail “what, when and how” we should do, especially who to appoint and who not to appoint [послом]. There are completely different procedures for this.
One more point regarding this situation: the agenda is formed by the host party and it is approved together with our embassy. Therefore, in normal diplomatic practice, in such a case, if there are any questions to the ambassador, or some inconsistencies in positions, or some confusion, some collision, the ambassador is not recalled, but invited to the capital for consultations. That is, he is recalled for a certain time.
Thus, until the dust settles in the USA, until it becomes clear that everything will be fine, until the passions subside, the ambassador will be in his own place, in his native capital, to collect additional information, reform the team, receive instructions from the minister… And then he will go back to his post – to the capital of his stay. In fact, it seems to me that it would be the best option now – to simply call Markarov for a consultation, and then bring her back when this is all over.
But won’t this change the position of some Republicans, the same speaker of Congress?
But what to do with Speaker Mike Johnson’s position in general is a difficult question. After all, this position is completely subordinated to the position of Donald Trump. That is, essentially, what to do with Trump’s position?
Republican Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, was also offended by Zelensky / photo Getty ImagesThe new federal budget must be voted on in five days. Or, if they do not vote it on time (and it is most likely that they will not vote it on time), we need to start talking about the federal budget, about the military budget and, accordingly, about the aid budget for allies, which includes the budget for Ukraine. That is, if Johnson is as determined as we can see, then we risk repeating the situation of the end of 2023 – the beginning of 2024, when we could not approve this aid for six months.
Therefore, in my opinion, closed consultations should be held here. We need to talk separately with the Republicans, we need to talk separately with the Democrats. We need to get out of this situation. It is necessary to untie the Ukrainian topic from their party confrontation. Otherwise, we’ll have support issues again.
During this visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the USA, among others, a meeting with the candidate for the presidency of the USA from the republicans, Donald Trump, was supposed to take place. But not only is it unlikely to happen anymore, Trump is already accusing Zelensky of meddling in the American elections. How to understand this behavior of a candidate for the presidency of the United States?
In fact, Trump has once again taken another turn in his attitude towards Ukraine. You see, there is a certain pattern. When Trump sees that Biden is weak in relation to Ukraine, Biden cannot force Congress to make a decision or personally cannot come to any conclusion, or, in principle, Biden shows himself negatively in the context of Ukraine, then Trump is “on the horse” – he starts talking (these were his statements at the beginning of the year, when the US could not pass a budget), that he would have given Ukraine 120 billion instead of 60, that he would have bombed Moscow and Beijing if the war had started during his term of office… That is, that Trump is a hero in general, he would beat everyone there.
Instead, last year, when Ukraine was launching a counter-offensive and new aid packages were coming from the Biden administration, Trump said that Ukraine is a corrupt country like Afghanistan that should not be dealt with at all. That is, Trump’s attitude towards Ukraine clearly depends on the course of his political campaign.
Did the current anti-Ukrainian hysteria on the part of Trump begin because of the strong positions of the Democrats?
As I said, Biden is doing fine now, and Trump needs to stand up to that.
Zelensky visited a shell factory in Pennsylvania, which angered the Republicans / photo president.gov.uaYou see, the Biden administration is one step away from making a decision to provide us with the means and permission to strike deep into Russian territory. Two support packages have arrived in the last few days. Zelensky went to Pennsylvania, to Biden’s hometown, to a factory that produces 155-mm artillery shells that are much needed for Ukraine… That is, everything is going so that Trump is now in a weaker position in Ukraine. Ukraine, on the contrary, brings electoral points to Kamala Harris, and Biden looks good against this background…
Trump needed to respond to this somehow. Here he reacted in the classical sense for himself.
How should the Ukrainian side build its relations with Trump, with the Republicans in these conditions?
In fact, there is no normal advice here. Trump is a politician fixated exclusively on personal contacts, on personal relationships, and, rather, it is precisely because of such a plan that one should approach him. Many people in the President’s Office said that they have some personal access to Trump’s advisers, that they know these people, they are ready to work with them, etc. Right now is the time to use these personal contacts. Because, unfortunately, there is no other, more public, normal approach to this.
Vitaly Sayenko