Name: How much of a deterrent would Western troops on the ground in Ukraine be for Moscow? | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-07T16:54:42.000Z
Duration: 18 min 59 s
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Adverbs of manner

Well, this shift in US Security policy towards the Western Hemisphere could have global implications, especially for European defense and the war in Ukraine.

Adverbs of degree

Almost four years into Russia's full scale invasion, the US President is pushing for a peace deal.

Ukraine and its European allies say that any ceasefire agreement needs to include robust security guarantees for Ukraine.

Otherwise, they fear, Russia could launch a new attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been meeting with key European allies and top US Envoys in Paris today.

But Trump's actions in Venezuela have raised questions about whether the US could soon completely turn its attention away from Ukraine and European security.

All right, Joining me Now from Washington, D.C. is Kurt Volker.

He was the U.S. special representative to Ukraine during.

A Macron adviser described today's talks as the culmination of efforts to prevent the United States from abandoning Ukraine.

I wouldn't quite phrase it that way, but I understand why the French advisor might.

I see this more as a way of consolidating European efforts to provide more leadership in providing security for Ukraine.

I don't think that President Trump is going to walk away from Ukraine.

He's made this a very high priority since the first day of his administration, urging all sides to make peace.

I don't agree with everything he's done and the way he's gone about it, but

this is clearly very important to President Trump.

One of the things that he has done is tried to get Europe to shoulder more of the burden in handling European security matters.

Look, for instance, at the Hague summit of NATO where he urged European countries to spend 5% of GDP on defense or getting European nations to buy American weapons to provide them to Ukraine, rather than it being provided by US Taxpayers.

So he's been urging Europe to step up and do more.

And I think this coalition of the Willing Summit is demonstrating how Europe is doing exactly that.

We know that President Trump wanted Ukraine, and I'm quoting here, done by Thanksgiving.

How badly does that timeline clash with what European leaders are trying to achieve, which is long term deterrence rather than a quick deal?

Yeah, well, he's been saying all along he wants a quick deal.

He was gonna do this in one day, he was gonna do it in 100 days, he was gonna do it by the 4th of July.

The reality is this war continues because Vladimir Putin wants it to.

Vladimir Putin wants to take over Ukraine, and

so far, nothing has convinced him that he will never succeed.

We can convince him that it is not worth the effort.

It's going to take more things like this, more military capacity put on the table, a demonstration he will never win militarily.

It's also going to take more financial pressure drying up the oil and gas revenue that the Kremlin still gets, including from Europe, to pay for this war effort.

So there's a lot more we can do to accelerate, needing a cease fire that we can do to shorten that timeline.

But it is right now still a very long timeline because Putin believes he can still prevail.

I want to come back to Vladimir Putin in just a moment, but

I want to ask you about what we've seen in the past few days.

President Trump obviously sees the intervention in Venezuela and the detention of Nicolas Maduro as a complete success.

How do you see that affecting his attitude towards Ukraine?

Well, it's interesting and he's even said a couple of things since then.

One of them, he made a rather derisive comment about Putin saying that he had lied to him and lied to him about Ukrainian drones striking his house.

He also was very critical of the Russian military and made a contrast of the American military going in in three hours and accomplishing their objective, while Russia has been attacking Ukraine for four years and everybody just dies, whereas no one on the US Side was killed in this operation in Venezuela.

Now, the danger signal in all of this is Trump's assertion of a sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere, saying this is ours to deal irrespective of anyone else's interest.

And here Putin will likely make a similar claim about Ukraine, that that is Russia's sphere of interest.

I hope that the United States and European allies firmly reject such an assertion by Putin.

It is an independent sovereign state and not something just to be divvied up.

You know, you talk about spheres of influence.

That brings us to a quote from about six years ago.

The former Trump adviser on Russia, Fiona Hill, she testified to Congress in 2019 that Russia informally offered to end its support for Venezuela in exchange for US acquiescence on Ukraine.

And is that what we're seeing play out right now?

Well, yes, I was aware of that at the time.

And of course, the Trump administration at that time was very much against that.

It's A different administration now, but at the time, we were very much against that.

And no, I don't think it's what we're seeing play out now, because you're seeing the US Assert its own sphere of influence, irrespective of Russia supporting Maduro, trying to get one of their shadow fleet vessels out of there, having military advisors there, having Cuban military advisors there, having condemned this invasion, this seizure of the Venezuelan president.

And President Trump has ignored all of those Russian complaints and comments.

So rather than being a deal, this is Trump acting very much unilaterally.

Well, I know that you have said that Vladimir Putin has not given in on anything when it comes to Ukraine ever since the beginning of the war.

But he really wouldn't have an incentive to give in on anything if he expects this to be his reality.

Venezuela for the US And Ukraine for Russia.

Remember, he didn't invade Ukraine because of US Policy or European policy.

He wanted to take it over to eliminate Ukraine as a national identity, to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state.

Now, he will try to assemble arguments to make those actions look justified, but

that doesn't mean those arguments are relevant at all.

He's doing this because that is his overall desire.

And I don't think the president, President Trump's action in Venezuela will change Putin's calculus in any way.

Excuse me, does Venezuela reinforce President Trump's belief that foreign policy problems can be solved quickly?

I mean, does it make him less patient with Ukraine's slower and riskier negotiations?

Well, it's yet to be seen because what we have seen so far with Venezuela is a couple of days that seems to have been successful, a very clean snatch and grab operation to get Maduro and bring him to a court in the US and the vice president of Venezuela stepping in to maintain continuity of government there.

But we haven't seen how this plays out over a few months.

Do they have an internal strife that becomes more and more unstable, perhaps even bloody, that the US Is responsible for?

We just haven't seen how this is going to play out yet.

As for Ukraine, the president has been very clear.

He thinks that Russia's operation from the beginning was a disaster.

They should have, as the Biden administration said, and

Trump later said, they should have taken Kyiv in a couple of days.

And now for four years, they've been unable to mount a successful military operation, which shows really the weakness of Russia's position and by contrast, the relative strength and effectiveness of the US Military.

Let me ask you before we run out of time, has Ukraine crossed the point where it is no longer President Trump's top foreign policy deal perspective?

And if so, what does that mean for Ukraine's security after a ceasefire?

Well, I don't think President Trump limits himself to just one priority or one deal.

He keeps talking about all nine wars that he's seeking to end, giving himself credit for eight and a quarter so far.

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How much of a deterrent would Western troops on the ground in Ukraine be for Moscow? | DW News

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