James Gilmore, the former United States ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told Newsmax that it is easy for some to forget that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “fascist aggressor.”
Gilmore said to “National Report” on Tuesday that Putin’s mindset is a critical factor for President Donald Trump to focus on as talks continue toward a potential ceasefire and end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Gilmore said Friday’s trip by Putin to Alaska to meet with Trump about the issues is a good sign. But that was overshadowed by the White House gathering involving Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a host of European leaders.
“And let me say, I thought this was a dramatic meeting yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many national leaders in one place at one time to discuss Europe.”
Gilmore pointed to Putin’s inability to hold to political agreements as reason enough to put little emphasis on any kind of so-called “security guarantees” backed up by the U.S. or European nations.
“Look, with respect to a peace agreement and some type of security guarantees, there’s a long history here of Russia breaching those security guarantees,” said Gilmore.
He concludes that there is no basis for considering such an agreement to protect Ukraine. “I, personally, would counsel [Trump] to be very skeptical of that kind of assurance. I think that Zelenskyy has said that the best assurance is for Ukraine to be able to defend itself,” Gilmore said, “which means continuing European and American military support for Ukraine. I think I tend to favor that.”
Gilmore added that at least some European nation leaders may continue to push for some sort of security guarantee, but that brings little value to the end result.
“The Budapest Memorandum demonstrates they’re not worth very much. I think you can’t really do business with Putin,” he said. “And [Putin] also said that he won’t accept NATO countries in Ukraine, which is really not up to him. It’s not his business, honestly. He is a fascist aggressor.”
Trump concluded a White House meeting with Zelenskyy and a host of European leaders on Monday focusing on an end to the conflict and indicated that the next step will be a presumed three-way dialogue involving himself, Zelenskyy, and Putin. Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine but stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to protect Ukraine.
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