Via the BBC: Trump adviser says Ukraine focus must be peace, not territory.
Bryan Lanza, a Republican party strategist, told the BBC the Trump administration would ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his version of a “realistic vision for peace”.
[…]
Mr Lanza, Trump’s political adviser since his 2016 campaign, 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,” he told the BBC World Service’s Weekend programme.
“And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.”
[…]
Mr Lanza said he had tremendous respect for the Ukrainian people, describing them as having the hearts of lions. But he said the US priority was “peace and to stop the killing”.
“What we’re going to say to Ukraine is, you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision for peace. It’s not a vision for winning, but it’s a vision for peace. And let’s start having the honest conversation,” he said.
To quote the title of a book I read as an undergraduate, Every War Must End, and I certainly understand that there are therefore compromises to get there. I will even go so far as to say that it never seemed likely that the Ukrainians would regain Crimea, even if I think that that would be a just outcome.
But, it is disconcerting for a spokesman for the president-elect to take the Russian position on this discussion. It is one thing to end up in a negotiated settlement that comes to a compromise. It is yet another to concede territory publicly and before any actual negotiations have taken place.
It is purely propagandistic, by the way, to make it sound like US troops would be involved. That is playing US domestic politics with all of this. No one of any consequence has suggested that the US would deploy troops to fight to regain Crimea.
The statements also play into Russia’s position. It is awfully passive voice to desire a cessation of the killing without acknowledging the reason that there is killing in the first place because Russia invaded. Russia could withdraw and stop the killing today. They could go home and there would be peace.
Ukraine is the victim and Russia is the aggressor. To talk about it as if it is just some dispute that needs to end without any regard to why these events are taking place is to side with Russia.
I don’t expect, for example, the incoming administration will talk about Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah in such a fashion. Not even close.
As predicted, it looks like Trump is going to effectively side with the Russians.It is also unclear to me why Lanza is making these comments. He is not, as best as I can tell, a foreign policy expert or advisor. This is evidence we are moving back to amateur hour in the White House in terms of non-experts being involved in serious policy issues. While I understand experts come in varying degrees of competency and that even the best experts make mistakes, I also don’t accept arguments that non-experts are superior because of some populist sense that experts cause all the problems. I will only take that position from people who don’t use trained MDs for medicine, take their cars to non-mechanics to have them fixed, and let, say, comedians do their taxes.
Meanwhile, via the AP, the unseriouness of it all starts anew: Trump put Elon Musk on phone with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy during congratulatory call, official says.
The person, who was not authorized to comment on the matter publicly, confirmed that Zelenskyy and Musk spoke during the call with Trump, but that Musk did not appear to be on the line for the entire conversation on Wednesday. Trump seemingly handed his phone over to Musk, the person said, and the Ukrainian president thanked the SpaceX owner for assisting his country with access to the Starlink satellite internet platform.
The presence of Musk on the call highlights his influence in the president-elect’s circle. Trump has mused that Musk could have a formal role in his administration that focuses on government efficiency, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest given SpaceX’s lucrative government contracts.
