{"id":35646,"date":"2024-12-08T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35646"},"modified":"2024-12-09T00:58:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T06:58:05","slug":"trump-calls-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-ukraine-and-says-a-us-withdrawal-from-nato-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35646","title":{"rendered":"Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump<\/u><\/a> on Sunday pushed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine, describing it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war<\/u><\/a> despite being weeks from taking office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,\u201d Trump wrote on social media, referring to Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a television interview that aired Sunday, Trump also said he would be open to reducing military aid to Ukraine and pulling the United States out of NATO<\/u><\/a>. Those are two threats that have alarmed Ukraine, NATO allies<\/u><\/a> and many in the U.S. national security community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d if he were actively working to end the nearly 3-year-old Ukraine war, Trump said, \u201cI am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He refused to say if he had spoken to Putin since winning election in November. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say anything about that, because I don\u2019t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s call for an immediate ceasefire went beyond the public policy stands taken by the Biden administration and Ukraine and drew a cautious response from Zelenskyy. It also marks Trump wading unusually deeply into efforts before his Jan. 20 inauguration to resolve one of the major global crises facing the lame-duck Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump made his proposal after a weekend meeting in Paris with French and Ukrainian leaders<\/u><\/a> in Paris, where many world leaders gathered<\/u><\/a> to celebrate the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral after a devastating fire. None of the advisers traveling with him appeared to have expertise on Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyiv would like to close a deal, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. \u201cThere should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!\u201d Trump added. He was referring to mediation efforts by China that many in the West have seen as favoring Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy described his discussions Saturday with Trump, brought together by French President Emmanuel Macron, as \u201cconstructive\u201d but has given no further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy cautioned that Ukraine needs a \u201cjust and robust peace, that Russians will not destroy within a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we talk about an effective peace with Russia, we must talk first of all about effective peace guarantees. Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else. Russia brought war to our land,\u201d he said Sunday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Trump\u2019s post by repeating Moscow\u2019s long-standing message that it is open to talks with Ukraine. Peskov referenced a decree by Zelenskyy from October 2022 that declared the prospect of any talks \u201cimpossible\u201d as long as Putin was Russia\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That decree came after Putin proclaimed four occupied regions of Ukraine to be part of Russia, in what Kyiv and the West said was a clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, warned there was no such thing as a quick fix to ending Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m worried about is this kind of flawed idea that Putin can be placated, right, that Putin will come to some kind of a deal,\u201d McMaster told \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important for President Trump to adhere to his instinct in this connection … peace through strength,\u201d McMaster said, adding, \u201cHow about give them what they need to defend themselves, and then saying to Putin, \u2018You\u2019re going to lose this war?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Trump has said before that he would like to see a quick ceasefire in Ukraine, his proposal Sunday was framed as a direct appeal to Russia. The quick responses from Ukraine and Russia demonstrated the seriousness with which they regarded the idea from the incoming American president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Trump and President Joe Biden pointed this weekend to Russia\u2019s disengagement in Syria<\/u><\/a>, where the Russian military largely moved out of the way while Syrian rebels overthrew the country\u2019s Russian-allied president<\/u><\/a>, as evidence of the extent to which the Ukraine war has sapped Russia\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said at the White House on Sunday that resistance from Ukraine had \u201cleft Russia unable to protect its main ally in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration and other supporters of Ukraine have made a point of not being seen to press Ukraine for an immediate truce. Ukraine\u2019s allies fear a quick deal would be largely on the terms of its more powerful neighbor, potentially forcing damaging concessions on Ukraine and allowing Russia to resume the war again once it has built back up its military strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump portrays himself as up to making fast deals to resolve conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that have frustrated many of the Biden administration\u2019s own mediation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no prohibition on incoming officials or nominees meeting with foreign officials, and it is common and fine for them to do so \u2014 unless those meetings are designed to subvert or otherwise affect current U.S. policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Logan Act bars private citizens from trying to intervene in \u201cdisputes or controversies\u201d between the United States and foreign powers without government approval. But the 1799 statute has produced just two criminal cases, none since the 1850s and neither resulting in a criminal conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the NBC interview taped Friday, Trump renewed his warning to NATO allies that he did not see continued U.S. participation in the Western military alliance as a given during his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has long complained that European and the Canadian governments in the mutual-defense bloc are freeloading on military spending by the U.S., by far the most powerful partner in NATO. NATO and its member governments say a majority of countries in the bloc are now hitting voluntary targets for military spending<\/u><\/a>, due in part to pressure from Trump in his first term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether he would consider the possibility of pulling out of NATO, Trump indicated that was an open question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re paying their bills, and if I think they\u2019re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I\u2019d stay with NATO,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if not, he was asked if he would consider pulling the U.S. out of the alliance. Trump responded, \u201cAbsolutely. Yeah, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump expressed the same openness when asked if Ukraine should brace for possible cuts in U.S. aid. \u201cPossibly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. arms and other military support are vital to Ukraine\u2019s efforts to fend off invading Russian forces, and Biden has been surging assistance to Ukraine<\/u><\/a> before leaving office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday announced nearly $1 billion more<\/u><\/a> in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine. Austin spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Sunday about the status of the war and U.S. military backing, the Pentagon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian forces kept up their grinding advance in eastern Ukraine, taking the village of Blahodatne, according to a statement Sunday by Russia\u2019s defense ministry. If confirmed, that gain would bring Russian forces a step closer toward capturing the town of Velyka Novosilka and disrupting a key logistics route for the Ukrainian army, military analysts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump on Sunday pushed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine, describing it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war despite being weeks from taking office. \u201cZelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,\u201d Trump wrote on social media, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24241,1835,1230,1416,10442,2495],"class_list":["post-35646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ceasefire","tag-nato","tag-trump","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-withdrawal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35648,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646\/revisions\/35648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}