Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker offers this advice to President Trump ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week: “We should never be recognizing Russia’s aggression and occupation of Ukrainian territory, but we could get to a point where there’s a ceasefire and where basically Ukraine is not contesting it militarily.”

KURT VOLKER, FORMER AMBASSADOR: Well, that’s a great question because I think there are a few things that have been lost in the details right now but these details matter. First, there’s a big difference between not fighting over territory and just accepting that, some of it’s occupied, versus legitimizing the occupation of that territory, recognizing it as Russian territory. We should never be recognizing Russia’s aggression and occupation of Ukrainian territory, but we could get to a point where there’s a ceasefire and where basically Ukraine is not contesting it militarily. The West is not contesting it militarily. We have a long-term standoff and difference of views, and we deter future Russian attacks. That’s very different than recognizing Russia’s occupation. A second thing that I would be advising President Trump in this as well is that he has to remember that President Putin has rejected everything that Trump has proposed. So even this past week, he played Trump. Trump had a 50-day deadline, then a 10-day deadline, and Putin did not have a ceasefire, as was demanded by Trump. And yet Trump avoided implementing the tough sanctions and tariffs that he said that he would. Instead, Putin changed the subject to a meeting, a bilateral meeting in Alaska, and then his proposal is basically to keep everything that he already occupies and demand that Ukraine withdraw from territory that Russia doesn’t even occupy. So Putin is playing Trump here, and Trump needs to know that. JESSICA DEAN, CNN: Yes. And so as you lay it out like that, it does seem like going into this, this is kind of been a victory for Vladimir Putin. VOLKER: Absolutely. He benefits so much more from a meeting with Trump than Trump does from meeting with Putin. Now, Trump is motivated, I believe, genuinely, by wanting to end the war. He’s willing to go the extra mile. He’ll do the bilateral meeting. He wants to see the killing stopped. But Putin is exploiting Trump’s good nature in this. By then getting a bilateral meeting with the president of the United States when he’s an indicted war criminal, when he can’t travel normally throughout most of the world, and not giving anything in return. DEAN: And so then, what does the president push him on? And if he does accept what Putin is asking for, which we’ve laid out, what does that leave for Ukraine? Where is Ukraine in all of this? VOLKER: Well, first off, President Trump hasn’t indicated whether he agrees with Putin’s proposals or not. This is what Putin is proposing. So that’s understood. Secondly, I think that getting Putin engaged has been a very big lift. It’s a big deal to get everybody talking, even though they’re wildly far apart right now. But President Trump needs to keep his compass and he needs to be able to tell Vladimir Putin that you’re never going to win this war. It’s only going to get worse for Russia. You need to end it now. You need to have a ceasefire first. That’s the number one thing. Stop the killing. Then we can talk about arrangements. And secondly, there’s nothing that President Trump can agree to with Putin that he can implement. Implementation depends on Ukraine agreeing as well. So this has got to be a discussion that is ultimately between Ukraine and Russia, moderated or brought together by the United States. Sure. But if Ukraine is not on board, there’s nothing President Trump can do to make such an agreement. DEAN: And to that end, we do have this new reporting that the White House has not ruled out Zelensky being in Alaska during this meeting on Friday. Would you encourage the president and the administration to have him there? VOLKER: Yes, I think it’s not a bad idea at all. I think that President Trump is putting as much emphasis and much push into this as possible to get to a ceasefire, and I think if the two of them are able to meet with Trump and explain their positions and Trump just stays resolute, ceasefire first, the rest we can discuss, ceasefire first, I think that could be a good thing. DEAN: And what of — what of the sanctions? If, and again, we’re projecting. We don’t know what’s going to happen on Friday. But if they cannot reach a deal, at what point does Trump have to push forward with following through on some of these threats? Or do you think he does? VOLKER: Right. Yes. Trump should have — yes, Trump should have already done this. He should never have let his own deadline pass. He needs to apply pressure in order to have something that he can lift. Right now, Putin is not under any pressure. So Trump needs to be layering on that pressure to cause Putin to want to end this. And right now, that’s not the situation. And I hope that if he didn’t do it Friday, which he didn’t, if he doesn’t do it by this weekend or Monday, certainly after this Friday meeting, if there’s no ceasefire, he needs to move.
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