‘Trump’s strength & unpredictability can help end war with Russia’

KYIV: US President-elect Donald Trump is “strong and unpredictable,” and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

However, Zelenskyy said it won’t be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day, as Trump claimed during his election campaign he could do.

“The hot’ stage of the war can end quite quickly, if Trump is strong in his position,” Zelensky said in a Ukrainian television interview late Thursday, referring to fighting on the battlefield.

“I believe (Trump) is strong and unpredictable. I would very much like President Trump’s unpredictability to be directed primarily toward the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy said.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, hasn’t publicly fleshed out his policy on Ukraine but his previous comments have put a question mark over whether the United States will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest — and most important — military backer. Zelenskyy is eager to guarantee that Washington’s support keeps coming, and he met with Trump in New York even before last November’s US presidential election.

With the war about to enter its fourth year next month, and with Trump coming to power, the question of how and when Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II might end has come to the fore.

Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine and last year capitalised on weaknesses in Ukraine’s defences to slowly advance in eastern areas despite high losses of troops and equipment. The war’s trajectory is not in Ukraine’s favour. The country is short-handed on the front line and needs continued support from its Western partners.

Trump responded positively to the possibility of Western peacekeepers in Ukraine, as raised by French President Macron, Zelenskyy said after meeting both in Paris last month.

However, Zelenskyy questioned which countries would join the initiative and whether the US would participate. Determined for Ukraine to join NATO, Zelenskyy insisted European troop deployment shouldn’t hinder its future membership. He also referred to Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region as a “strong trump card” in peace talks.