Name: Former Russian president slams Zelenskyy
Uploaded: 2025-12-30T19:14:32.377Z
Duration: 5 min 51 s
Description: Former U.S. ambassador to the UN Kurt Volker joins to discuss the latest on the Ukraine-Russia peace talks.

Former U.S. ambassador to the UN Kurt Volker joins to discuss the latest on the Ukraine-Russia peace talks.

Ambassador Kurt Volker commented on recent claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine attempted to strike his residence, suggesting the allegations are intended to disrupt peace efforts and provoke a reaction from former U.S. President Donald Trump. Volker expressed skepticism about the proximity of peace between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that Putin has no intention of abandoning his goals regarding Ukraine.

Volker also discussed U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, calling them essential for any peace settlement, and highlighted the need to deter future Russian aggression. Additionally, he addressed recent U.S. military actions against drug operations in Venezuela, stating these are part of a broader strategy to pressure President Maduro without escalating to direct U.S. intervention.

Former Russian president slams Zelenskyy

Ambassador Kurt Volker, Ambassador, always good to be with you. First off, we want to get your thoughts on what we just heard from Sarah about the news about the attack, alleged attack on Putin's residence. Well, it's kind of predictable that every time the U.S. and Ukraine start getting closer together on a peace proposal, Putin does something to disrupt it. In this case, he makes this claim in a phone call to President Trump that Ukraine tried to strike one of his houses, unclear if this actually happened or not. Even if it did, there's no evidence that he was there and that this was an attack on him. And even if that were true, of course, Russia has tried to assassinate Zelensky several times in the past. But putting all that aside, the only reason this issue is coming up is because Putin is bringing it up with Trump to try to provoke a reaction from Trump against Ukraine. And so we have to see this for the manipulation that it is intended to be. Yeah. And, you know, Sunday, President Trump had mentioned that he believes that peace may be very close. Take a listen. We had a terrific meeting. We discussed a lot of things. As you know, I had an excellent phone call with President Putin that lasted for over two hours. We discussed a lot of points, and I do think we're getting a lot closer, maybe very close. All right, that was just a few days ago, and we see these allegations now. So, Ambassador, do you think that we're actually close to peace here? Will we see that? No, I don't think so. And the reason is this Putin will say one thing. He'll say, yes, I can agree to that. I can agree to that. He'll play this along with President Trump. But he has no intention of actually giving up on any of his maximalist objectives. He really wants to subjugate Ukraine as part of a wider Russian empire. That's his real goal, and he's not giving up on that. Now, what President Trump has done, and I would argue very effectively, he has gotten the U.S. and Ukraine and Europe aligned around what a reasonable peace outcome would be. And this is something the Ukrainians are prepared to support, together with the U.S., together with Europe. Putin will never agree to this. He'll never agree to anything at all. But it sets the stage for isolating Putin, putting a bit more pressure on him. And if we can get Putin to the point of at least having a cease-fire, because his economy, his finances, his military needs it, we can then act on the basis of this plan to say, here is what we're going to impose, here is what we're going to create as a way to stop the fighting, create stability and security, and deter future Russian attacks. Yeah, President Zelensky also said that the U.S. is offering security guarantees for 15 years. Zelensky said he would prefer 50. I want to get your take on that. I mean, do you think the fact that the U.S. is agreeing to any security guarantees, is that a positive sign? It's very positive. I think, in fact, it's essential, because Zelensky will not be able to agree to any peace deal that just leaves Russia in a stronger position and able to attack them again. So he needs to have security guarantees to justify stopping the fighting, pulling forces back, reaching whatever settlement there is, but then knowing with certainty that there will be enough strength on Ukraine's side to deter future Russian attacks. And I know the people in the U.S. worry that, well, this may set the U.S. up to be in conflict with Russia. I would just remind people that that is already the situation. If you look at Germany, if you look at France, Italy, Baltic states, Poland, these are all treaty allies of the United States. We are committed to their defense if they are attacked. And it is that commitment that actually deters Russian attacks against NATO. The problem here is that Russia attacked Ukraine because they were not a member of NATO. What we need to do now is eliminate the gray zones, so that in the future, after there's a ceasefire, there's no more fighting in Ukraine, we deter future attacks. All right, before we run out of time, I quickly want to talk about Venezuela. As you know, U.S. forces struck another drug boat in international waters yesterday. The president did confirm a CIA landstrike against cartels earlier this month. Take a listen. It was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area. That's where they implement. And that is no longer around. Ambassador, your reaction to that, and are we looking at possibly regime change here? I do think that regime change is the ultimate goal, but not imposed by the U.S., one where we do enough to put pressure on Maduro to dry up his revenue, to stop the drug trade, to confiscate the oil ships that are acting against sanctions in order to dry up his ability to stay in power. I think what President Trump wants to do is force Maduro to draw the conclusion that he has to go. I don't see that these strikes on docks are a significant escalation. It's all part of the same strategy of drying up the sources of revenue for the Maduro regime. I don't think it presages any kind of U.S. invasion. All right, we're going to leave it right there. Ambassador Kurt Volker, always a pleasure to be with you, sir. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Thank you.

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