Donald Trump views with concern the increase in the use of new munitions in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, said the person designated as National Security Advisor in the new cabinet of the US president-elect.
US President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the increasing use of different types of weaponry in the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine, his National Security Adviser nominee said in his statement on Sunday. new cabinet.
Michael Waltz, a congressman from Florida, told “Fox News Sunday” that the decision by the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine use antipersonnel landmines to try to stop the advances of Russian ground troops has turned the fighting in eastern Ukraine into something akin to “World War I trench warfare.”
Waltz said the decision “has to be within a broader framework to end this conflict.”
“It's just an absolute crusher of people and personnel on that front,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that the United States is sending antipersonnel mines to Ukraine because of the changing nature of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the main battleground.
He said Russian ground troops, rather than more protected forces in armored vehicles, are leading Moscow's advance, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow that effort.”
Waltz, for his part, indicated that Trump, who takes office on January 20, is concerned about the carnage, but said that in the big picture, the question that must be preeminent is: “How do we restore deterrence and how do we achieve peace?” ?”
“We need, we need to bring this to a responsible end,” he added.
Trump has often claimed that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine even before being inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Trump has never said how and refused to say during a campaign debate in September that he wants Ukraine to win.
Biden gave Ukraine the authority to launch Washington-supplied missiles with a range of 300 kilometers toward Russia in response to North Korea sending 10,000 troops to fight alongside Moscow's forces. Within two days, kyiv attacked weapons depots in Russia's Bryansk region with missiles.
Then Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new experimental rocket targeting Dnipro in eastern Ukraine.
“This is a clear escalation,” Waltz said. “Where is this escalation going? How do we get both sides to the table” for peace negotiations?
Waltz, whose appointment does not require Senate confirmationsaid he has been meeting with Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser. Waltz said any adversary of the United States “is wrong” if they believe they can “play one side against the other” with the shift of power in Washington from Biden, a Democrat, and his long-time political enemy, Trump, a Republican. .
Waltz said he is “confident” that Trump will restore peace “in a very short time” to the multiple conflicts in the Middle East involving Israel fighting Iranian-funded militants: Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But months of ceasefire talks on the conflict in Gaza are stalled and talks to reach a halt to the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel have yet to produce an agreement.