Dmyro Kuleba, former Foreign Minister of Ukraine, presents his new book “Ukraine 2030 – Vision of a Nation” in an interview with the German press agency.
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US President Donald Trump does not seem to be concerned about the post of Ukraine’s postwar, former Foreign Minister Dmyro Kuleba told CNBC in the midst of a rapid escalation of tensions between Kyiv and Washington this week.
“I don’t think he cares. Well, let me say it even simpler. I believe he doesn’t care. I believe he doesn’t care about any single country in the world except the United States,” he said Sedgwick of CNBC of Thursday
Kuleba, who led the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry from 2020 until his resignation in the fall of 2024, said Trump’s sole concern was that Ukraine did not become a failed state like Afghanistan, and that its plan of Ukraine “does not collapse in a way that will expose its weakness to the whole world … because it has zero tolerance to failures.”
“We know him, and that’s the matter. So it’s not to tell him how good Ukraine is and how he deserves his support. It makes no sense because that is not how he thinks,” he said Kuleba. CNBC has contacted the White House for a response to Kuleba’s comments and is waiting for a response.
Kuleba left office in September 2024 in the midst of a large cabinet reorganization created to refresh the Ukraine government and bring new ideas to the highlight, at a time when Russian forces began to earn co -ordinated profits in the east of country.
The comments of the former CNBC war minister come as those territorial advances continue, while the relationship of Kyiv with the US, its biggest military supporter since the beginning of the war in 2022, seems to be deteriorating the day.
The links have been tense since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The White House leader and senior Republican officials have expressed skepticism that Ukraine can win the conflict, holding it a war of withdrawal.
Tensions between Ukraine and the US came to their heads this week, as senior White House officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia in order to impose peace of peace talks in Ukraine all the time while Excluded Kyiv’s officials from participating in discussions.
Relations between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then went from evil on Wednesday after the latter described the US president as “living in a Russian misinformation bubble”.
Trump struck behind, describing the wartime leader in Ukraine was a “dictator without election”, referring to the lack of national voting in the entrenched place since 2019. Ukraine has suspended elections between military law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a press conference in Kyiv on February 19, 2025, in which he stated that Russia’s leadership is “liars” following a Russian drone attack that followed talks in Saudi Arabia between Russian officials and Americans.
Tetiana Dzhafarova | AFP | Getty Images
Trump surprised Ukraine and its European allies last week when he announced that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that the leaders had agreed to conduct peace talks to end the war. Trump said he had subsequently informed Zelenskyy about the situation, making the gesture appear as a mirror.
Kuleba was cynical about the prospect of peace talks, saying Putin was not interested in an agreement.
“[Putin] wants to avoid Donald Trump’s boredom. This is his strategy. He does not want a deal. He does not want a Ukrainian land belt. He does not want NATO -Ukrainian. He doesn’t want any Ukraine. He wants Ukraine not to exist. And there should be no illusions about it, “Kuleba said.
“You can already see tones and very different approaches from both sides. And the fact that the United States delegation seems so excited is a little weird. I think they have to slow down because they have to understand the side with What are they working, ”he said.
Kuleba said the Trump administration had overestimated its ability to influence Putin, claiming that the Russian president had a congenital disbelief in the West.
“Putin doesn’t trust Trump to [a] Very simple reason because he does not know if Trump’s promises will keep … and he does not need a temporary solution. He knows that the best guarantee for [is] That Ukraine will not become a member of NATO, and the existence of Ukraine. He is in his conviction that the West [has] Always betrayed it … so there are some very, very big obstacles ahead of Trump. “
CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for a response to Kuleba’s comments and is waiting for a response.
US special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg was in Kyiv on Thursday to connect with Zelenskyy, but suspicions are extended to the value of the meeting. Kellogg was missing from the American delegation that went to Riyadh earlier his week.
The Ukrainian and Kellogg president intended to hold a joint press conference after their meeting, but this was canceled at the US request, the Ukrainian presidential office said, according to a Reuters report.
US special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg meets Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, between Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 20, 2025.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
The current Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha said he had discussed ways to achieve a fair and sustainable peace with the US envoy.
“I affirmed Ukraine’s willingness to achieve peace through our strength and vision for the necessary steps,” Sybiha said on the X social media platform, adding that he had “repeated that Ukraine and transatlantic security is inseparable.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told Ukraine that he had to call criticism against the US, saying US officials were trying to secure an acceptable peace agreement for all parties.
“They have to tonify it and take a difficult look and sign that deal,” Waltz Fox News told, referring to a critical mineral arrangement in which Trump proposed to Ukraine to give ownership of 50% of The US in its rare land minerals as a reward for military aid has given to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy is reported to have ordered his ministers not to sign any agreement, which Trump had previously claimed would give the US approach to $ 500 billion of rare land minerals, saying the proposal was very focused on the interests of The US and offered Ukraine very little in return.