Senior adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump Bryan Lanza, who called on Ukraine to forget about the return of Crimea, expressed his own opinion. This was reported by Trump’s office.
They explained that Lanza was a campaign contractor. “He does not work for President Trump and does not speak on his behalf,” the unnamed Republican spokesman said.
Lanza told the media that Kyiv should not think about returning to the peninsula. If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks about the need to return Crimea, he will show a frivolous attitude towards the negotiations. “We have news for President Zelensky: Crimea is lost,” the Trump adviser further added. He added that the future administration of the US president-elect will focus on achieving peace, and not on providing Kyiv with the ability to counterattack.
If the main thing for you is to return Crimea and use American soldiers for this, then this is already without us
–Bryan Lanza, Senior Advisor to Donald Trump.
According to BBC, The current US President Joe Biden, as well as European countries, are to blame for Ukraine’s military failures. He explained that the allies “did not provide Kyiv with the capabilities and weapons to win the war at the very beginning, and also failed to remove the restrictions for Ukraine to win,” according to Bryan Lanza.
Mr. Lanza, a Trump political adviser during his 2016 and 2024 campaigns, did not mention areas of eastern Ukraine, but he said regaining Crimea from Russia was unrealistic and “not the goal of the United States.”
“When Zelensky says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace once Crimea is returned, we’ve got news for President Zelensky: Crimea is gone.”
“And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.”
–Bryan Lanza, Senior Advisor to Donald Trump.
After this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn commented on Lanza’s statement, saying that “these are all words in one direction.” He accused Moscow of wanting to continue the conflict, while Kyiv allegedly advocated a peaceful settlement.
In turn, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalenko, considered the statement by Trump’s adviser to be Moscow’s actions. “The Russians will throw in all sorts of things. Don’t panic, there are months of similar information waves ahead,” he told his fellow citizens.
Trump’s team had begun discussing a plan to end the conflict in Ukraine. According to a source in The Wall Street Journal, the plan involves freezing the front line, along which a demilitarized zone would be created. It is not yet known who would ensure its security, but one of the media sources ruled out the involvement of US troops or contingents of the UN and other US-funded organizations.
In turn, Kyiv is obliged to abandon attempts to join NATO in the next 20 years, but at the same time continues to receive weapons and military training assistance from the US.
Moscow puts forward other conditions for the start of peace talks. Among them are the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, recognition of the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over the said territories and Crimea, the lifting of international sanctions, the demilitarization of Ukraine and its commitment not to join NATO.
