As a former Trump employee says that the relationship between the USA-Ukraine has changed

Author and retired lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman discuss his new book “The Folly of Realism: How the West has deceived and revealed Ukraine” and addresses President Donald Trump’s approach to ending Ukraine with Russia.

During the first Trump government, Vindman was the director of European Affairs of the National Security Council.

Vindman also became known as a whistleblower who concerns concerns about Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who triggered an office investigation. He said Trump put pressure on the Ukrainian government to examine Joe Biden’s family – who was then Trump’s political rival. Trump was acquitted in 2020 after months of office survey and Senate procedure.

Phil Lipof of ABC News sat down with Vindman to discuss his book, Trump’s strategy in dealing with the war and his general predictions for the second term of the president.

ABC News: This week has been three years since Russia entered Ukraine. President Trump now calls the Ukrainian President Zelensky a dictator who later blamed the leaders of Ukraine for Putin’s attack on this country. It has obviously triggered controversy.

In order to discuss this change in the policy of the Trump government and Russia and the possible end of the war in Ukraine, the author, pensioner lieutenant Colonel and former Trump employee Alexander Vindman is.

With its latest publication, you can see it on the screen: “The foolishity of realism: how the West was wrong about Russia and revealed Ukraine.”

Alexander Vindman, thank you for coming to talk about it. Let’s start with where we are today. The latest Trump administration and the shocking vote that took place this week at the United Nations, the USA, which occurs in this coordination with North Korea. What do you make of it?

Vindman: This is how the United States was wrong about Russia.

ABC News: This is the title of your book, yes.

Vindman: I mean, to be honest, it’s a very serious topic, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind. The reason why I wrote this book is that I want to understand how we came in the first place.

And there is a lot of continuity between the mistakes made in the past and the mistakes that Trump now make because we consistently set Russia in the past 30 years.

This is a whole thing that is shocking for us now is that it is at a different level. As in the final stage, the Poison Kool-Aid level is the folly of realism and all of these mistakes that we only enlarge in Trump as he does excessively.

So take this position in which it is located with Russia, which is located with North Korea, with our traditional opponents, in contrast to our traditional allies, the Europeans, Ukraine – this is a shock for the system. But there is also too much continuity with the mistakes of the past.

ABC News: I want to talk about the mistakes of the past because they say that this goes beyond administration to the next, even about political parties. But today Trump said that Russia would have to make some concessions so that this war ends. This is new. He focused on Zelenskyy. What do you think both sides will do to achieve this goal?

Vindman: Well, I think it is clear to me that the Ukrainians will bend backwards to impair compromises. You want this war to end, but you will not do so that your sovereignty, national security or territorial integrity fully endanger.

If you, the maximum position in this type of compromise would be something that provides guarantees so that Russia is not involved. The challenge here is not the Ukrainians who are willing to accommodate themselves and really want to peace. It is the Russians that are completely inflexible and want to surrender.

ABC News: You talk a lot about your military, your career and your time as a military officer who serves under Trump’s earlier administration. Of course they are Ukrainian-American. They also say that Trump’s appeasement of Russia will not end with the Ukraine secretary. What do you mean by that?

Vindman: I think the fact is that this idea that countries only pursue their national interests exclusively and maximum until we deviate a decisive shift from this realism and everything is a transaction – we have to get the best offer from every commitment.

We concentrate in the long run. I speak this idea of ​​neo-idealism when we think about what is really important to us. It is stability. It is the friendships that we have with our allies who give us economic prosperity, give us the security we need when we are attacked as if we were in September 11th. Until we make this change to a different approach, we repeatedly repeat the same errors.

ABC News: Take a step back. What can really be done to alleviate the feeling of what you have described as a continuing broken global order?

Vindman: This is, I think at the moment we are in this phase in which we could expect Trump for four years. To a certain extent, a lot of unpredictability, a lot of chaos, we have to be moderated in reality and execution.

We will see that repeatedly. It happened in the first administration. It will happen in this administration. I think our friends will belong less and they have to do it alone to a certain extent. For example, with the support of Ukraine, you will even bring the Double -Down -down -Down -Down -Down -Down -Down -Down -Down -Down in Ukraine to the ground.

ABC News: We are already hearing some of it from Europe.

Vindman: But there will be a time when we have passed Trumpism. The pendulum has swung so far into this extreme state. It will normalize.

ABC News: Alexander Vindman, thank you very much. Appreciate it. And you can now “The Folly of Realism: how the West is wrong about Russia and reveal Ukraine”, wherever books are sold.