Oleksandr Khara: Even Trump's Plan Poses Serious Problem For Putin

The Ukrainian diplomat explained the proposal of the US presidential candidate would not work.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump announced his intention to end Russia's war against Ukraine in 24 hours.

According to The Washington Post, people who know Trump's plan say that he said in a private conversation that he could end Russia's war against Ukraine by pressuring Kyiv to give up a certain territory — Crimea and Donbas.

Later, Trump's entourage called this publication a “fake”. Can Trump's plan really be like this? Oleksandr Khara, a diplomat and expert at the Ukrainian Center for Defence Strategies, spoke to Charter97.org about this and more:

— It is worth saying that there are no grounds for any peace plans yet, since Ukraine has not lost the war and is not going to lose it. Moreover, to discuss the surrender of territories, since this is a matter of the survival of the nation and a military and political issue. I can't imagine Zelensky agreeing to such terms. What will happen to him in just a few hours later? Accordingly, what we see from the Russian side — they are sure that everything can work out for them, especially with Trump, so the Russians are preparing to get as much as possible from this situation.

As for the plan or some of its elements, there have already been similar ideas. I think this can hardly be called a plan, since Trump has an approach of acting through his charisma, trying to contribute his personality force so that the other party agrees to his terms. This is a good theory, but in reality, we saw when he was president, he did not succeed completely with Kim Jong Un. Despite many meetings and high expectations, he failed to solve the North Korean issue for the simple reason that an experienced dictator perfectly understands what his interest was.

Trump wanted to go down in history as a person who solved a deep and old problem, so Kim Jong Un was definitely not going to give up his interests. The same can be said about Putin. No matter how Trump sees some solutions, it is clear that this will not be easy to realize. Moreover, the issue is not in the territories, not in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea, but in Russia's desire to destroy Ukraine totally, control the territory, and then proceed to the next stage of conquest.

We are well aware of this, our friends and partners both in the States and in Europe are well aware of this. Shall we give Putin the opportunity to legitimize the loot and then prepare for the next stage? No one is ready for this, and Trump proposes to leave Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea to Russia. How, then, can Putin solve the problem that he has already introduced the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions into the constitution? Should Putin say: "Well, sorry, will we change the constitution again"? I can't even imagine that. Let's imagine that Ukraine has no options and we decide on this. What will Russia do then?

And most importantly, neither the Ukrainian society nor the Ukrainian leadership is ready for this. Ukraine is ready for any development, prolongation of the war, if we do not have enough funds and assistance from our partners, our own forces. But the fact that we must return the occupied territories is not only a matter of restoring international law, it is a matter of Ukraine's survival.

Donetsk, Luhansk — it also hurts, it is clear that Ukraine will not abandon them, but without Crimea, Ukraine will always be in danger, and the Russians will threaten the whole country, threaten to cut us off from the Black Sea and, accordingly, the outside world. And we are not going to agree with this state of affairs.

— Joe Biden has been leading the polls in the United States in recent weeks. What factors can directly affect the growth or decline of the ratings of the two candidates in the foreseeable future?

— It's difficult to predict who will become president before the election, since there are an extremely large number of factors.

For example, on October 7 last year, a terrorist attack on Israel and the beginning of the Israeli campaign to destroy Hamas reduced support for the left wing of the Democrats of the current US administration, because they believe that America should use all its forces to stop the campaign of Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip.

Some say they won't vote for either Trump or Biden. Naturally, this means a smaller electoral base, although it also means the stupidity of people who say so. If Trump comes to power, it is clear that they won't like it even more, since he is a tougher supporter of Israel and can just ignore humane or humanitarian issues regarding the Palestinians. This factor is also real.

Naturally, there are also factors of conflict in other parts of the world. Occurring in the Red Sea or the Indo-Pacific region. Increasing tensions and the corresponding reaction of Americans can also affect the election results.

The next factors are old problems and border issues. The problem of migration policy is really acute, there have been attempts to put pressure on the Biden Administration. You remember, there were negotiations between Republican senators and Democrats on a package of assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan for almost four months. There was also the issue of resolving the situation on the border. But Trump did not like it, he wanted not to soften the issue before the elections. They accelerated it.

The other day, the Investigative Committee published information alleging that Burisma company, in which Biden's son was also involved, was involved in the financing of terrorism. It is clear that this was dreamed up, it has already been proven that this company did not pay any bribes to Hunter Biden. Unequivocally, this will be promoted by Trump supporters, this can also be a factor. Information campaigns, propaganda, these are the things that strongly influence people's moods.

There are also economic issues — the spike in energy prices is possible, gasoline will rise in price at gas stations for an ordinary American, this can also affect. Therefore, there are many factors directly dependent on Biden and those events that Republicans can use.

No one canceled court trials against Trump. One was finished after it was put on the ballots, that is, the Supreme Court gave its opinion. But there are others. For example — the case related to the riots on Capitol Hill, it can still shoot.

Definitely, the closer November, when everyone will vote, the more dirt, propaganda, outright lies, manipulative information will appear. The two sides will try to mobilize their electorate, so now it is too early to say that one or the other candidate can win for sure.