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HALIFAX, Canada — A top Senate ally of President-elect Donald Trump poured cold water over the idea of negotiating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, saying the Kremlin couldn’t be trusted and would see any peace proposals as a sign of Western weakness.
“As much as I would like to believe we can negotiate with a tyrant, I suspect we may be deceiving ourselves,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum.
“Do you believe that this tyrant, if you offer him a part of a free country, do you think he’s gonna stop?” Rounds asked. “I wish I could say there’s an easy way out, there’s not.”
The impassioned comments from Rounds, which he stressed were not the position of the incoming Trump administration, still represent a starkly differing view in the Republican party from Trump’s vows to broker a peace deal with Russia within days of assuming the presidency. They also reflect a pro-Ukraine view that is widely-held in the Senate Republican caucus even if other camps in the MAGA world are pushing Trump to cut U.S. military aid to Ukraine when he takes office in January.
Rounds spoke after Hanna Hopko, a Ukrainian civil society leader and former member of parliament, expressed frustration with the amount of time it has taken the U.S. to agree to weapons transfers and to loosen restrictions on their usage.
He echoed that sentiment. “I just feel so frustrated that we have not been able to provide them all of the equipment that they need, and all of the weapons systems that they need, in order to respond to the absolute tyranny coming from Russia,” Rounds said. “I wonder why we haven’t done more more quickly than we have.”
Rounds added to the skepticism from some Western officials about the prospect of Trump’s vows to end the war early into his administration — though officials have been careful not to directly criticize Trump in their assessments in public.
Ukraine is staving off a renewed assault from Russian troops and North Koreans who have been sent to the frontlines.
“We have to continue to support Ukraine because there’s so much at stake, and I cannot imagine that it is in the interest of the U.S. to see Putin coming out of those negotiations as a winner,” Royal Netherlands Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, told POLITICO on the sidelines of the Halifax conference.
