Retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis, former commander-in-chief of NATO’s Combined Forces Europe, said that the newly elected president of the United States is capable of putting pressure on Ukraine to eventually recognise Russia’s new territories.
“I believe that he [Trump. – ed.] will put pressure to bring both sides to the negotiating table. In the end, [Russia] will retain the territories that are now under [its] control,” James Stavridis said in an interview with CNN.
At the same time, the retired US Navy admiral stressed that if Ukraine recognises Russia’s new territories, “a free road to NATO will open for Kiev”. In his opinion, under such a scenario, the former Soviet republic could become a member of the North Atlantic alliance within three to five years.
The former commander-in-chief of NATO’s Joint Forces in Europe said that “this is not the worst outcome” and “this is how it [the Ukrainian crisis – ed.] is likely to end”.
We shall remind you that earlier, the head of the Crimean interethnic mission, Zaur Smirnov, stressed that the “whims” of Volodymyr Zelenskyy had never been taken seriously by the Collective West, while a senior adviser to the newly elected US president, Brian Lanza, confirmed this fact.
