Former veteran US diplomat Daniel Fried, who played a key role in designing and implementing American policy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, blasted the Trump administration on Monday for considering “unilateral concessions” in peace talks to Russia, which, as he put it, “weakens the West’s negotiating position” and “benefits Moscow.”
Speaking to Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent, Ambassador Fried, criticized the White House’s “negotiating logic,” arguing that instead of putting pressure on Russia the way the Trump administration did on Ukraine earlier, “we’re giving the Russians flowers.”
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Fried had served as the assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs in the Bush and Obama administrations and is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Advertisement
“Anyone who has worked with the Russians or negotiated with them know that it will not work,” he warned.
More specifically, Fried was reacting to White House envoy Keith Kellogg’s latest statements on Ukraine’s NATO membership, telling US media over the weekend that it was “off the table,” something that the Kremlin wasted no time to praise on as “satisfying.”
“We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is excluded. Of course, this is something that causes us satisfaction and coincides with our position,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Kremlin-controlled media as saying on Monday.
Other Topics of Interest
‘Propaganda Tricks’ – Zelensky Rebuffs Kremlin’s Claims on Kursk
“Our military continues to perform tasks in the Kursk and Belgorod regions. We are maintaining our presence on Russian territory,” the president insists. Moscow talks of a “buffer zone” in Sumy.
Kyiv Post has contacted the White House to clarify Kellogg’s position but hasn’t heard back by the time of publication.
President Donald Trump himself said Monday afternoon that he would reveal the contents of his proposed peace plan for the Ukraine war this week. “I will be giving you a full detail over the next three days,” he told reporters at the at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House South Lawn. “But we had very good meetings on Ukraine, Russia… We’ll see how that works.”
Advertisement
As Trump’s team is poised to return to London late tonight for ceasefire talks on Ukraine, Ambassador Fried in an interview with Kyiv Post highlighted the potential negative consequences of unilateral concessions to Russia, including the risk of recreating the conditions that led to the 2022 Russian invasion.
“Now, Kellogg did also say that there are workarounds, and I’d be interested to know what he has in mind. It is possible that other security arrangements could be made that could work for Ukraine and European security. But again, if we are in the habit of making unilateral concessions to Russia, what workarounds will there be?” he went on to ask.
He then added: “Russia will not accept any workaround that leaves Ukraine secure, and it is not in our interest to leave Ukraine insecure. To do so recreates the situation that led to the big Russia invasion in 2022, so I don’t understand what is gained.”
According to Ambassador Field, Kellogg’s statement on Ukraine’s membership undermines the NATO consensus reached last summer, in which all the allies agreed that Ukraine would become a member and that their job was to build a bridge to it.
Advertisement
“Walking away would show that the US is not reliable, that we are basically impatient, have no attention span, no determination to actually advance our own interests.”
– Ambassador Daniel Fried
He also questioned the timing and rationale behind team Trump’s peace concessions, just when the battlefield situation is “slowly turning in favor of Ukrainian defenders,” as he put it.
“Russian advances seem slight or basically halted. Their casualties seem high. There are even some reports of minor Ukrainian counter attacks... Russia’s economy is more vulnerable today because of the lower price of oil,” Fried explained.
He went on to add: “So the notion that we would advance a peace with unilateral concessions, while no pressure on Russia at all, makes no sense that I can see. And I find it bewildering, especially since Republicans, for decades, have made a point that they are tough negotiators and don’t like the way Democrats have negotiated from weakness. Now they are the ones creating weakness and creating a worse negotiating situation.”
Asked whether the Ukrainian delegation should push back against unilateral concessions during upcoming talks, Fried emphasized the importance of coordination with European allies to ensure a unified approach is achieved.
Advertisement
The Europeans are poised to play a key role in supporting Ukraine and that Kyiv will not accept a bad solution involving recognition of Russian occupation. If the Ukrainians and Europeans resist such demands, the US position could change over time, he said.
“I think the Europeans are poised to play a key role. First of all, the Ukrainians have good relations with the Europeans, who seem to realize that they cannot and should not leave a settlement entirely in Washington’s hand,” he added.
Fried also highlighted that the US should not propose recognizing Russian occupation of Crimea, as it would undermine American leadership and principles that it has held dear for decades.
“From the Stimson doctrine during the Hoover administration, to the Welles doctrine under Roosevelt, to the Pompeo declaration under Trump, the United States has taken a principled position of not recognizing territorial annexation by force, and I see no American interests served by abandoning it,” he said.
The US delegation is returning to Europe just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged that Washington was prepared to “move on” should the peace talks stall.
Asked about Rubio’s comments, Fried told Kyiv Post that if the top US diplomat intended to put more pressure on Russia and give more support for Ukraine until Moscow is in a more reasonable state of mind, “that’s a good thing.”
“But what I fear what [Secretary Rubio] means is that the US will walk away from Ukraine altogether, and that would be a blow to American interests, because it would show that the US is not reliable, and it would show that we are basically impatient, have no attention span, no determination to actually advance our own interests, and that we can be given a snow job by the Russians. I think that would be a terrible thing,” he said.
Advertisement
Fried concluded with a clear message to the Trump administration: “As Napoleon once said, if you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna. If you set out to make peace in Ukraine – and peace through strength, a peace that leaves the West more secure – then mean it and do it!”
