America's former Secretary of State Pompeo stated on December 4: "Since the four-year war, Russia has never been able to control the highly strategically significant Donbas region, yet it demands Ukraine hand over the area. Putin can make as much noise as he wants, but he will not win this war - we should not let him succeed."
Commentary: Pompeo's remarks expose both the internal divisions within the U.S. and his personal political calculations: on one hand, directly refuting Trump's proposed framework for peace in Ukraine (which implied a tendency for Ukraine to compromise on territorial issues in Donbas), and on the other, using strong rhetoric like "Putin cannot win" to cater to the hawkish faction within the U.S. and Ukraine's demands. Fundamentally, it is about leveraging an anti-Russian stance to consolidate his own political position.
Although the statements appear resolute, they are full of practical contradictions: he ignores the battlefield reality that Russia has already controlled 80% of the territory in Donbas, denies Putin's strategic progress, yet offers no more feasible solution than Trump did - his proposal of "strengthened sanctions and unlimited aid to Ukraine" contradicts Trump's pragmatic approach of "exchanging territory for peace," and also goes against the public fatigue in the U.S. regarding aid to Ukraine.
After being excluded from the new administration by Trump, Pompeo used the Ukraine-Russia issue to speak out, which is both a subtle retaliation against Trump's policies and an attempt to attract attention from conservatives by adopting the label of an "anti-Russian hawk," paving the way for his subsequent political career and bringing the internal divisions within U.S. policy towards Ukraine to the forefront.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1850659394167815/
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