Bye bye Ukraine: Does US President Trump make you serious?

DW Bye bye Ukraine: Does US President Trump make you serious? Astrid Prange de Oliveira • 1 hour • 3 minutes of reading time Does Trump care the political fate of Ukraine? The signs for this are condensed. One thing is certain: Kyjiw does not come first in US foreign policy. And the longed -for ceasefire continues to long. Threatening trade wars with China and Europe, customs quotes also with the US neighboring countries Canada and Mexico, the war in Gaza, drop-in stock exchange courses and protests against mass layoffs in their own country: US President Donald Trump is currently fighting at the same time at many (partly homemade) fronts. In this crisis scenario the question arises: do the USA drop Ukraine? A "yes" only seems to be a matter of time. Because after the latest, so far not successful attempts for a temporary ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow, many factors indicate this threatening scenario. Trump: "Maybe Ukraine will not survive" It was US President Donald Trump himself who recently took up the topic. In an interview with the US TV broadcaster Fox Newsnach in the Eklat in the White House, the moderator Maria Bartiromo asked him whether he would cope with the idea that Ukraine could not survive the war with Russia. Trump's answer was: "Well, maybe the Ukraine does not survive the war anyway. It always takes two for a war. Actually, this war shouldn't have started, but it happened. And we are now hanging in this mess." Rubio: "Ukraine has to make concessions" The fact that the fate of Ukraine does not enjoy the highest priority in U.S. foreign policy already made it clear to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his hearing before the Federal Foreign Committee in the US Senate on January 15 of this year. The Republican said that the United States would continue to be among its closest allies. He expressly mentioned Israel and Taiwan, but not Ukraine. Instead, he said: "Global topics that do not serve US interests, for example Ukraine and development cooperation, are put to the test". "Ukraine has to make concessions, and every cent of foreign aid should be checked for its sincerity and effectiveness," said Rubio. Biden also excluded US troops in Ukraine The United States' foreign policy withdrawal had been heralded before Trump's first term. "None of Trump's predecessors have ever undertaken to fight for Ukraine," recalls Stephan Wertheim, an expert in US foreign policy at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in an opinion contribution for the British newspaper The Guardian. US President Joe Biden expressly excluded the posting of US troops to Ukraine. "No NATO alloy also defended Ukraine directly," said Wertheim. The reason for this is obvious: "This would mean a war with Russia," writes Wertheim, "a view that the NATO allies can still deter, regardless of what happens in Ukraine." Even if the Europeans did not want to hear it, according to Wertheim that it was understandable that the United States did not want to commit to Trump to go to war for Ukraine in the future. "Peasant victim" Ukraine? Russia expert Stefan Meister, on the other hand, sees Trump's rejection for security guarantees extremely critical. "Trump has already worsened his own negotiating position and that of Ukraine massively," he said in an interview with Südwestrundfunk. "Why should Moscow already compromise in any respect if the US president already offers half of what Russia demands?" Master heads the Center for Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia of the German Society for Foreign Policy. He fears that Ukraine could simply get under the bikes in the new adjustment of Russian-American relations. "My impression is that Trump ultimately doesn't care about Ukraine," he explains. From a US perspective, Ukraine may simply be a peasant victim that you give the Russians to get other things. " "Deal" without Europe These "other things" may include the topics that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in his speech before the Federal Foreign Committee of the US Senate: Israel and Peace in the Middle East, relationships with China, dealing with Iran and ultimately also an approximation between Washington and Moscow. The American writer Robert Kagan no longer indulges in illusions. "President Trump has made it clear that the United States is no longer willing to defend Europe," explains the former Republican who advised several US presidents in an interview with the weekly newspaper.