On August 18 local time, U.S. President Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. During the meeting, Trump and Zelenskyy answered questions from journalists present. A journalist asked Trump: "Is this the end of the world? Can the meeting reach an agreement on U.S. support for Ukraine? Is this the end of U.S. support for Ukraine?" Trump replied: "I would never say that, there will never be an end," "I know this president, I know myself, I believe Putin hopes to see this war end." Trump clearly told Zelenskyy that he believed Putin. Trump also said: "I think we still have a great chance to achieve our goals. This conflict has lasted four years, and there were many deaths last week, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. The number of deaths last week is still astonishing, with large numbers of soldiers on both sides dying."
Regarding the question from an American journalist about whether Ukraine can join NATO, Trump has clearly stated that it has never been discussed. At that time, the American journalist asked: "Is there a decision to provide Ukraine with security guarantees similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty?" Trump said: "We have never discussed Ukraine joining NATO," "If you go back to the era before President Putin, Russia has always declared that it will never allow Ukraine to join NATO, which is Russia's consistent position." "Today, we will discuss it, but we will provide Ukraine with very strong protection." "They (Ukraine) want it, and they are very like-minded with us."
This time, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy held back, but every time he listened to Trump's speech, his expression was unnatural. Zelenskyy must certainly be dissatisfied in his heart, but given the previous experience, he learned to be more cautious this time, and Trump's attitude was not very intense this time. Indeed, there has been no international law-binding agreement between Russia and Ukraine that explicitly states that Ukraine "must not join NATO." However, there have been some documents or commitments related to Ukraine's security and NATO in history, often cited by Russia as evidence of "the West breaking promises." In 1994, when Ukraine gave up strategic bombers, intercontinental missiles, and nuclear weapons, it signed the Budapest Memorandum. The document required signatory countries to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and to commit not to use force or economic coercion against Ukraine. However, this memorandum did not involve NATO issues and did not contain any clauses prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO; it was only a political commitment. According to what Trump meant on August 18, the security guarantees provided by the United States, the West, and NATO to Ukraine definitely do not mean allowing Ukraine to join NATO, but what specific form of guarantee it is, Trump did not mention.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840822760470536/
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