Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Newsmax on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not stopped playing games.
Volker told “The Record With Greta Van Susteren” that talk of a meeting involving Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy depends on conditions Putin will demand.
“I don’t think that Putin is going to meet with Zelenskyy on a bilateral basis anytime soon,” he said. “They’ve already started to try to throw up some obstacles to that, including by proposing that the meeting take place in Moscow.”
The former ambassador called this a typical ploy for Putin.
“Putin felt compelled to tell President Trump over the phone he would do it, but now he’s going to try to establish conditions that have to be met by the Ukrainians before he would agree to meet,” Volker said.
He predicted that Putin’s conditions will be uninviting to Zelenskyy, putting a potential meeting in jeopardy.
“And then, the fact that the Ukrainians cannot do that will then be used by Putin as an excuse not to have the meeting,” he said.
Still, Volker said what President Donald Trump has done so far to bring about peace between the two nations is welcome.
“So this is good that President Trump has got everybody talking. It’s on the top of the agenda for everyone right now. But Putin is still going to play games with us,” he said.
Volker said Monday’s White House meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy, and a host of European leaders put a spotlight on a key element of a long-term plan to either win or impose peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“The most important thing they talked about at the White House was security guarantees for Ukraine after a settlement. So the idea that a ceasefire could very easily be broken again by Vladimir Putin, all he has to do is build up his forces and attack again,” he said.
The primary approach then, Volker said, is to have European nations step in to support Ukraine: “So to prevent that, you want to have enough security assurances for Ukraine that if they’re attacked, there will be support.”
Volker said European leaders know they are too close to the current battlefields to ignore the potential of a broader conflict.
“They also have a stake for their own security, because if Putin’s not stopped, he’ll move on to other countries,” he said. “So they have a vested interest, and they wanted to make sure that they are at the table and that they are making sure that this negotiation goes in a direction that they will be comfortable with.”
Russia has disputed talk of a pending meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, even after Trump said the meeting was in the works.
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