Ex-president ‘could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state’, former adviser Fiona Hill tells author 

Martin Pengelly in Washington

Fri 12 Apr 2024

As president, Donald Trump “made it very clear” that he thought Ukraine “must be part of Russia”, his former adviser Fiona Hill says in a new book about US national security under threat from Russia and China.Putin bromance has US intelligence officials fearing second Trump term

“Trump made it very clear that he thought, you know, that Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia,” Hill, senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US national security council between 2017 and 2019, tells David Sanger, a New York Times reporter and author of New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West.

“He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state.”

This, Sanger writes, meant Trump’s view of Ukraine was “essentially identical” to that of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who would order an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a year after Trump left office.

Before triggering the invasion, Putin said in a speech: “Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space.”

Last month, in a speech marking 10 years since the annexation of Crimea, Putin declared that parts of occupied Ukraine were part of a “New Russia”.

New Cold Wars will be published in the US on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

The book appears with the Ukraine war grinding into its third year but with $60bn of new US military aid to Kyiv blocked by far-right Republicans in the US House, acting in accordance with Trump’s wishes as he runs to defeat Joe Biden in a presidential election rematch and return to power.

The House speaker, Mike Johnson, has indicated he wants to pass Ukraine aid but he faces strong opposition, not least from Trump, with whom Johnson is due to appear in Florida on Friday. Biden has strongly condemned Republicans’ hold on Ukraine aid, as have lawmakers from both parties. Biden and other senior figures have also condemned Trump’s words in support of Putin, including a stunning promise to “encourage Russia to do what the hell they want” to US Nato allies he deems financially delinquent.‘Trump thought I was a secretary’: Fiona Hill on the president, Putin and populism

On Thursday, Alexander Vindman, formerly the top Ukraine aide on Trump’s national security council, told CNN that without new US aid, Ukraine’s position had become “quite precarious”.

Like Hill, Vindman was a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial, over his attempts to blackmail Ukraine by withholding military support, in an attempt to extract political dirt on rivals including Biden.

Vindman was fired, after Senate Republicans loyal to Trump assured the president’s acquittal at trial. Hill left office on her own terms.

Vindman was born in Ukraine. Hill was born in Britain. Now a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and chancellor of Durham University in the UK, Hill’s thoughts on Trump, Russia and Putin remain eagerly sought, particularly given her co-authorship of Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, a well-regarded biography.

In Washington in February, Hill told a conferencestaged by anti-Trump conservatives that Trump “idolises” Putin for his autocratic leadership and longevity in power.

That view, Hill said, contributed to Trump’s furious rejection of intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win.

She also said she had spoken to European leaders at the Munich security conference, finding them nervously preparing for a possible second Trump administration.Trump may not be in power, but his Ukraine rhetoric has spooked Europe

“The prime ministers and presidents and foreign ministers and others … all know how capricious Trump is,” Hill said. “And that’s really what they’re worried about, because it doesn’t matter how many people that they know who become secretary of state or secretary of defense, it comes down to Trump himself and the unpredictability of his personality.”

Hill’s words to Sanger about Trump’s view of Ukraine, though brief, seem guaranteed only to add to such worries.

The result of growing qualms about Trump, his attitude to Russia and other idiosyncrasies, Hill said in February, “is that [European leaders] have started to lose faith in the United States. And it’s very distressing to hear.”

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Now let’s examine precisely what it is that Trump idolizes about Putin?

That’s right, it’s murdering Ukrainians and stealing their land:

April 12, 2024

Today, Ukraine was subjected to another mass bombing. Many people died and the critical infrastructure destroyed. The main goal of the russian terrorists is to hurt as many people as possible. Break and destroy everything they can. Real evil, which cannot be justified. At the same time, the US government is asking Ukraine to restraint from shelling oil refineries in russia. This is especially hypocritical, given the fact that the US stopped providing any military aid to Ukraine and when the roles were reversed the US was bombing oil refineries of Japan and Germany during WW2.

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Comment from :

Terence Chamberlain

Global Managing Director at The Coca-Cola Company (Retired ) views expressed are my own independent and do not reflect on any company views.

NATO and the rest of the allies need to step up and provde a no fly zone and improved air defences for Ukraine 🇺🇦 to save civilian lives . This pictures shows what Russia is doing on a daily basis and has to be stopped. The US 🇺🇸 has regretfully not met its promise and it’s Congress is a disgrace in not finding a way to have a vote on the vital aid for Ukraine 🇺🇦. Support Ukraine 🇺🇦

Nedder McDonnell

Ashamed to be from the U.S. these days. We should have declared war two years ago. Now so many more people will die. Saying the United States is in compliance with the Buda Pest Memorandum of 1994 is hiding behind the letter of the non-treaty ‘assurance’ when its spirit screams for courage and justice. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6963114645016461313/ (NOTE: link to Buda Pest Memorandum embedded in post.)

Peter H. Schmidt

COO & Co-Founder at Transcend Air Corporation

Roman, the problem is this: (round numbers) 30% of U.S. voters are on board with Trump and fully approve his Putin-financed fascism. A similar number are committed anti-Trumpers.

That leaves 40% in the middle who are almost entirely ignorant of both history and politics – but who do notice gas prices.

Polls show Biden and Trump in a statistical tie for the presidency right now. If gas prices go up between now and the election in November, it could easily result in Trump being elected, which would be disastrous for the West.

I deeply regret the ignorance of my fellow citizens, and their lack of compassion. But I thought you should know why not driving up oil prices might actually be in Ukraine’s interest between now and November. Sigh.

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ROMAN SHEREMETA

One of the defenders of Mariupol and a prisoner of war during the trial in russia. I have seen similar images from Auschwitz of how Nazis treated their prisoners. This is precisely why Ukraine has to win in order to stop the russian genocide!

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