Donald Trump, if re-elected as president of the US in November, could strengthen sanctions against Russia, bolster the US defense industry and create a $500 billion lend-lease program for Ukraine to end the Russian invasion, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
"While Mr. Biden stumbled into war through weakness, Mr. Trump could re-establish peace through strength," Pompeo, who was head of the CIA under Trump from 2017 to 2018 and secretary of state until 2021, wrote in an op-ed piece with BGR Group Managing Director David Urban.
In the 700-word article, the pair doesn't claim any inside knowledge of Trump's plans for Ukraine, but argue that many Ukraine supporters are mistaken in their belief that he would "cut off aid to Ukraine, give away its territory, and deal directly with Vladimir Putin to impose an ignominious 'peace' on the country."
"There’s no evidence that such capitulation will be part of President Trump’s policy and much evidence to the contrary," they wrote. "It was Mr. Trump who in 2017 lifted the Obama administration’s arms embargo on Ukraine, providing it with the Javelin missiles that helped save Kyiv in the earliest days of Russia’s invasion. More recently, Mr. Trump gave political cover to House Speaker Mike Johnson when he maneuvered to pass additional military aid."
The article argues for a seven-step plan to end the war, in Ukraine's favor, including tightening sanctions on Russia, beefing up the US defense industry, eliminating restrictions on Ukraine's use of weapons, strengthening NATO and creating a $500 billion lend-lease program for Ukraine that would "let Ukraine borrow as much as it needs to buy American weapons to defeat Russia."
"These steps would position Mr. Trump to set the terms of a deal: The war stops immediately," Pompeo and Urban wrote. "Ukraine builds up substantial defense forces so Russia never attacks again."
In this scenario, the article states, "No one recognizes Russia’s occupation and claimed annexation of any Ukrainian territories—just as we never recognized the Soviet incorporation of the Baltic states and withheld recognition from East Germany until 1974. Crimea is demilitarized. Ukraine rebuilds with reparations from Russia’s frozen central-bank reserves, not U.S. taxpayer dollars."
