Putin won't make peace with Ukraine before 2024 US elections - State Department official
Putin is waiting for Trump's re-election (Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has no plans to make peace with Ukraine until he knows the results of the U.S. elections in November 2024, according to a high-ranking official spokesperson from the U.S. State Department.
The remarks come amid concerns that the potential victory of former President Donald Trump could alter Western support for Kyiv. The State Department representative, speaking at a briefing for journalists after the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, said that the alliance has reaffirmed its support for Ukraine, acknowledging that a peaceful agreement next year is unlikely.
"My expectation is that Putin won't make a peace or a meaningful peace before he sees the result of our election," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting's outcomes.
When asked whether he was expressing his personal opinion or the U.S. government's stance, the official responded that it was a "widely shared premise".
"That was the context in which the allies all expressed strong support for Ukraine" in the NATO meeting on Tuesday, the official added, without mentioning Trump by name or explicitly saying how the election result would affect support for Ukraine.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-November showed that if Trump and U.S. President Joe Biden were in a tight race, Trump would lead Biden by 51% to 49% when respondents were asked to choose between them. This result fell within the survey's margin of error, which is approximately 4 percentage points.
Biden, a Democrat, has provided substantial military assistance and other support to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, but additional funding for Ukraine is being curtailed by Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Trump, who stated that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours if re-elected, to personally witness the scale of the war.
