A former senior diplomat in US president-elect Donald Trump’s first administration has called for increased pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table over the war in Ukraine.
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The former deputy secretary of state Stephen Biegun said conditions are “present” for Trump to bridge negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, but added that the president-elect could face a big challenge to engage Putin in talks.
“We expect that this will proceed relatively soon in the new year, when [Trump] is in office. There will be one major obstacle that the new president will face, which is, it does not seem to any of us at present that the Russians are prepared to negotiate,” he said.
Biegun made the remarks at the University of Michigan on Tuesday night, where more than a dozen Ukraine policy experts – including former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba – gathered for a two-day discussion of options for the incoming president.
“The president should look at increasing the pressure on Russia, that if Russia feels that its interests are better pursued on the battlefield, that those realities have to change in a substantial way … to encourage Russia to understand that its interests are better pursued at the negotiating table,” Biegun said.
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Trump, who returns to the White House in January, has vowed to bring an early end to the prolonged conflict. He is reported to be considering multiple peace plans presented by his cabinet picks, including his nominee for special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and incoming vice-president J.D. Vance.