Trump NSA Pick Talks Ending the War in Ukraine
US President-elect Donald Trump’s top security advisor called on Sunday for Ukraine and Russia to come to the negotiating table to end the war.
“We need to bring this to a responsible end. We need to restore deterrence, restore peace, and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it,” said Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for the influential role of US National Security Advisor (NSA).
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In recent days, Washington has authorized Kyiv to use US-supplied missiles to strike targets in Russian territory and agreed to supply it with landmines, prompting Moscow to respond with the use of an experimental medium-range ballistic missile.
Waltz, a noted foreign policy hawk and former US special forces company-grade officer, has been critical of Russia but has, like Trump, opposed increasing aid to Ukraine. He is just one of dozens of controversial officials that Trump has already announced would be nominated or appointed to key federal positions once he takes office in January.
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“President Trump has been very clear about the need to end this conflict,” he told US media outlet Fox News on Sunday, per AFP. “We need to be discussing who's at that table, whether it's an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table, and then what's the framework of a deal?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has in the past ruled out ceding any territory to Russia, and told Fox News on Tuesday that Ukraine would lose the war if Washington pulls funding.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has promised a smooth transition to Trump, who has pledged major shake-ups on both foreign and domestic policy. On Sunday, Waltz said he had met Biden's NSA Jake Sullivan and warned adversaries abroad against thinking they could gain an advantage in the months before Trump takes office in January.
“For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity that they can play one administration off the other. They’re wrong... we are hand in glove.”
Russia Claims Capture of British Fighter as Ukraine Returns Russians from Kursk
A British man reportedly fighting with Ukraine’s International Legion has been captured by Russian forces in Kursk Oblast, according to officials in London.
A video of James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, in military clothing was first spotted on Telegram posts circulated by Russian war bloggers. In the clip, he tells the Russian soldier interviewing him his name and former rank in the British Army.
Russian state news agency Tass reported capturing a “UK mercenary” that had been “taken prisoner in the Kursk area” of Russia, part of which Ukraine has held since launching a surprise offensive in August. The British Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
According to the BBC, Anderson joined the International Legion after losing his job and seeing reports on television about the war. He originally traveled to Krakow before reaching Ukraine by bus.
Ukraine Sends Back Russians in Occupied Kursk
Dozens of residents from Russia’s Kursk border region allegedly took a similar trip – in the opposite direction – returning to Russia from Ukraine following rare and “painstaking” talks between Moscow and Kyiv, according to Russian media on Friday.
It was not clear why the residents had been transported into Ukraine, and there was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
“Today, 46 residents of the Kursk region returned to Russia from Ukraine as a result of a negotiation process with the Ukrainian side,” Russian human rights ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova said. The residents were all from the Sudzhansky district, home to the border town of Sudzha which Ukraine captured shortly after launching its offensive, according to local governor Alexei Smirnov.
“The painstaking and lengthy negotiations to return our fellow countrymen to their homeland have brought results,” he said on Telegram. The residents included 12 children and were returned via Belarus, with all of them being given “all necessary assistance,” he added.
One of the children being returned in the deal was three-year-old Darina, her mother, Anastasia Gridina, told AFP. “They are already on the way. In four hours I will meet Darina,” she said.
Gridina had gone to Moscow for temporary work, leaving her daughter with her grandmother in the Kursk region village of Lebedevka when Ukraine launched its shock offensive. In October she told AFP she had been pleading for help “everywhere,” even writing a personal letter to President Vladimir Putin.
At one point she tried to cross the front line herself, but was forced to turn back. The deal comes at a tense moment in the Ukraine conflict, with Kyiv firing British and US-supplied long-range missiles into Russia and Moscow firing a hypersonic missile at its neighbor.
The limited return of civilians, as well as exchanges of captured soldiers and bodies of killed fighters, have become the only areas of cooperation between the two sides, which have been fighting since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
“I do not believe that populism can stop Putin. I do not believe that cheap energy resources can protect your freedom for a long time.”
Zelensky Blames G20 Weakness Against Putin on Lack of UN Security Council Reforms
In a press meeting Sunday at the Third International Grain from Ukraine Summit, President Zelensky stated that the G20 Summit in Brazil was held with limited support for Ukraine. He also raised the issue of reforming the UN Security Council due to its ineffectiveness, according to the Ukrainian presidential office,
According to him, the weakness exhibited during the G20 Summit allowed Putin to hit Ukraine with the new IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) during the G20 leaders meeting.
“If we want good, normal relations between our nations, between our peoples, then, we should probably support people first, not aggressors, leaders of aggression in the world, like Putin, like today’s modern Russia,” Zelensky said.
“I do not believe that populism can stop Putin. I do not believe that cheap energy resources can protect your freedom for a long time. I believe this is a wrong step,” he said.
His administration stated that Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, the country currently holding the G20 Presidency and hosting the Summit, showed a weak position on the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky said when there are strong statements, calls, and steps, the Russian leader won’t be able to act as he does now. He tied the lack of these statements to the inaction on reforming the UN Security Council.
“Everyone is talking about it, but the UN Security Council reform is not happening. There are actors who do not want any reforms, because otherwise they will have less influence.”
Zelensky said that every two or three months, Putin escalates the battlefield situation “to avoid sitting down at the negotiating table.”
“Without a clear stance from major countries – the United States, Brazil, Asian and African states – agreements with Putin will amount to mere stalling tactics and further intimidation by Russia. At the same time, all the steps proposed by Ukraine to end the war are based on the UN Charter. Our country hopes that our partners will support them.”
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