Today is set to be a “big day” for Ukraine, our military analyst Michael Clarke has said.
Speaking to presenter Gareth Barlow, he outlined why today could help change Kyiv’s fortunes.
“I mean, if as advertised, this could be a very big day because we’ve always said Donald Trump can turn on the dime and we don’t know how far he’s turned,” Clarke said.
After months of seemingly moving closer to Vladimir Putin, recently Trump has grown critical of him.
Moving parts
Clarke outlined the choreography going on today, with two senior visitors to Washington, the NATO chief and German defence minister, Trump’s promised “major statement”, and the US envoy visiting Kyiv.
And it could be the latter, Keith Kellogg, who could be key, Clarke says.
Clarke explains that initially, Trump seemed to turn away from Kellogg’s plan for Ukraine, instead favouring closer ties with Putin.
Kellogg said that if unable to negotiate with Moscow, Washington should give Kyiv all the weapons it needs to fight.
But Trump may have changed his mind, at least somewhat.
“It kind of looks as if Trump is going back towards the Kellogg plan of December before he came into office, but we’ll see,” Clarke says.
The idea that the US could supply Ukraine with offensive weapons would be a “real sea change”, Clarke says.
Putin ‘overplayed’
It was also possible that one role in leading to this decision from Trump was the Russian president’s own actions.
Clarke explains: “It’s possible Putin has overplayed his hand by these massive air attacks night after night on Ukraine, which do appear to have had an impact on President Trump, to say, you know: ‘He talks nicely, and then he bombs everybody’.”
See our 7.04 post for more on this and watch Clarke and Barlow below:
