Trump should make the ‘first move in Putin’s direction’, says a high-ranking US official

Donald Trump, who won the 2024 US presidential election, should be the first to make an offer to Russia on Ukraine. This was reported by TIME magazine, citing a former high-ranking US official.

If Trump decides that he wants to make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “the Russians will be interested.”

“The message is, if you want a deal, you’re going to crawl on your knees for it,” says Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of Foreign Affairs at the New School in the United States. “Putin feels he is starting out with Trump from a position of strength.”

“The U.S. needs to pack up its stuff and get back to where it was in 1997”

According to TIME “I hope we get the strategy right,” Mike Pompeo told TIME during a visit to Kyiv in September. Although Congress has approved more than $174 billion in assistance to Ukraine since the start of the invasion, “President Biden squandered it,” Pompeo added. “Too slow, too little, too late, too restrained.”

TIME believes Moscow is in no hurry to make a deal since Russian troops have progressed along the entire front line, especially in the eastern part of Donbas, in 2024.