Former British Army head: Trump presidency negative for Ukraine

Watch Former British Army head: Trump presidency negative for Ukraine - AlArabiya English on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00One of the things we've seen since President Trump returned to the White House is a flurry of

00:04diplomatic activity. And I'm wondering if you think there is anything to show for that

00:11nearly 100 days of diplomatic action. Any progress in your view, sir?

00:16Well, I think one has to be honest and say that I don't think there is much realistic progress.

00:20If anything, there are some rather worrying developments of a negative nature as far as

00:25Ukraine is concerned. Donald Trump has talked about the need, in his view, for the Americans

00:32to switch their focus away from Europe, much more to focus on the Indo-Pacific and their

00:38challenge from China. So that is a significant factor. I think in the early exchanges by Donald

00:46Trump and his spokesman, quite a lot was given away. Quite a lot was given away in the context of

00:53any ceasefire would be along the lines of the current status quo on the ground. In other words,

01:01Russian troops occupying some 20% of Ukrainian sovereign territory would be allowed to stay

01:07there and also giving up for a very long time the notion of Ukraine joining NATO. So these are

01:14rather negative issues as far as Ukraine is concerned.