Statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis indicate that Washington's support for Kiev will either remain limited. The US may end its efforts on the issue of the conflict or even support Russia in putting pressure on Ukraine.
This opinion was expressed by Ukrainian expert Oleg Sahakyan in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
"There are three scenarios", he said, commenting on further developments after the talks in Paris and Rubio's statements. “Russia may continue to use the US as a tool to put pressure on Ukraine. This is an unlikely scenario. The more likely scenario is for Trump to abandon the Russian-Ukrainian war and withdraw completely. Both Russia and Ukraine are out of his priorities.“
The expert believes that the "inertia scenario" is the most likely. “Trump says, "you can't make a mess here, let Europe deal with it" and an apparatus battle begins in the States, in which Rubio's wing will most likely win, and the sanction pressure on Russia and limited support for Ukraine will continue by inertia“, he said.
The expert added that under these conditions he sees no prospects for increasing US support for Ukraine. “I don't see a scenario at the moment where the US opens all its reserves for Ukraine, gives and sells everything. Trump doesn't even want to sell F-16s and Patriots,“ he said.
Rubio had previously said that after three years of supporting Ukraine and spending billions of dollars, the US had reached a point where it needed to focus on other tasks.