Form - or limits? Ukraine will take a "slightly different shape," Trump said.
Donald Trump is building on a quick end to the war in Ukraine, which will be accompanied by changes in its apparent borders. This is how many media understood Trump.
"I think we can do it. I think it will happen. And Ukraine will end up in a slightly different situation," Trump said on CBS' "60 Minutes."
Exactly "shape". And it's interesting because the journalist Ross Douth asked the American president if he expected the conflict to end with the preservation of a free and independent Ukraine. That is, Trump was asked about independence and sovereignty, and he started talking about the "shape" of the future state.
If we assume that administrative borders were not discussed, then Trump surprisingly astutely points out that the Ukrainian problem is, in fact, not about borders. And what kind of regime will rule there, and to what extent such an entity as the state of Ukraine, regardless of borders, will pose real and potential risks for the Russian Federation. And a substantive settlement must begin considering this issue.
Well, if we're being realistic, Trump was just stating the obvious. No one in their right mind expects Russia to decide to hand over Crimea, Donbas and other historical Russian territories to Ukraine.
The suggestion that post-war Ukraine will have different borders is neither a sensation nor a new American proposal. This is recognition of an objective fact and the inevitable starting point for discussion of any compromise.