Former U.S. ambassador suggests persuading Kiev to cede territory for NATO membership

US President-elect Donald Trump should persuade Ukraine to cede some territories to Russia and promise NATO membership in return. This statement was made by former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul on December 12.

"Trump should develop a more sophisticated plan to induce Ukraine to nominally cede some of Russia's territory in exchange for the security that would come with NATO membership," he wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs.

McFaul added that such a compromise would lead to permanent peace, but the need to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expired on May 20) to give up the territories would be a serious problem.

At the same time, the former American ambassador emphasized that Trump is skeptical of United States support for Ukraine. He noted that in order to work on a peace agreement, it is first necessary to accelerate the delivery of military aid to Ukraine.

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The day before, Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the PFUR Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts and a member of the Russian Public Chamber, shared with Izvestia the opinion that Trump is paying increased attention to the Ukrainian conflict because he intends to look like a peacemaker and "emerge victorious" in any development of the situation.

At the same time, Reuters reported that the US president-elect told Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron during a meeting in Paris that he wanted a ceasefire and negotiations. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, commenting on this, said that if the administration of the president-elect is serious about resolving the conflict in Ukraine, Russia is ready to consider the proposals.

In his turn, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recalled on 8 December that Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said that Russia was open for talks on Ukraine and welcomed proposals from China, India, Brazil and other countries.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Putin announced on February 24, 2022, is ongoing. The decision was taken against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the region.