Former National Security Adviser in the first Trump administration John Bolton said Friday that President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to be another advancement for Moscow rather than a step toward peace negotiations.
Speaking with CNN’s Kailtin Collins on “The Source,” Bolton cautioned that Trump is playing right into Putin’s hands by hosting the summit on American soil and began by offering a back-handed compliment on the president’s location choice. “Well, it’s very gracious of Putin to come to former Russian America for this summit. This is not quite as bad as Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David to talk about the peace negotiations in Afghanistan, but it certainly reminds one of that.”
“The only better place for Putin than Alaska would be if the summit were being held in Moscow,” Bolton said. “So, the initial setup, I think, is a great victory for Putin.”
Trump announced Friday he will meet Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15. This comes as Putin reportedly offered to end the war in exchange for the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. “He’s a rogue leader of a pariah state, and he’s going to be welcomed into the United States,” Bolton added.
“I don’t think anybody would have objected, frankly,” the former adviser said. He later reiterated his belief that Putin may attempt to “take advantage” of Trump during the one-on-one summit. “I have a feeling this is sliding very quickly in Russia’s direction,” the former U.N. Ambassador told Collins.
“We’re not quite back at February the 28th, in the Oval Office, when Trump told [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, ‘You don’t have any cards.’ But what’s happening is that Russia and the United States are discussing what terms they’re going to present to Zelenskyy, and it may well be that Zelenskyy has no choice here,” he continued. “Surrendering is always one way to get a peace deal.”
Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine will not accept any proposal to give up territory to Russia, calling such concessions a “dead solution.”
“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will retreat from this and no one can. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Saturday morning.
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