Ukraine is in Europe’s “backyard” and the ongoing conflict is its business, Richard Grenell says
Richard Grenell, a close associate of US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, believes Ukraine is within Europe’s “own backyard” and solving the ongoing crisis is Europe’s responsibility.
Grenell, who held several senior diplomatic posts during Trump’s first tenure and is now widely regarded as his “envoy” and likely pick for the Secretary of State if Trump wins the elections, made the remarks in an interview with German tabloid Bild on Friday. He suggested that Ukraine was largely within the EU’s “responsibility” rather than Washington’s.
“It’s in your backyard. If there was a war in Mexico, we would do most, if not all, of the job. And we certainly wouldn’t ask the Germans for help if there was a war in Mexico,” Grenell stated.
He claimed that Europe fared better during the Trump administration, pointing out that “There were no wars in Europe during Donald Trump’s time in office.”
Grenell also criticized incumbent US leader Joe Biden for his apparent lack of effort to engage in diplomacy with Russia and “talk” to President Vladimir Putin.
“Biden has not spoken to [Putin] in three years. I think talking to people is a tactic. Not the goal, not the solution – but it gets us there,” he suggested.
Grenell has been vocal about the Ukrainian conflict lately, proposing earlier this month how the hostilities could be solved. He suggested that Ukraine should not become a member of NATO in the near future and that transforming the country into a federation with a more autonomous region could be the key to ending the hostilities.
“Autonomous regions can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but you got to work through those details,” Grenell stated during a Bloomberg News roundtable.
Moscow gave the proposal a cold reception, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissing it as an attempt to re-imagine the long-defunct 2014–15 Minsk Agreements. The deal, which had provided a roadmap out of the conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass, was ultimately revealed both by Kiev and its Western backers to be a mere ruse to buy time for arming Ukraine.
“Where were you, Rick, when the Minsk agreements dedicated to exactly this were on the table of the international community, and Russia did its best in support of them and called for finding a form of federalization of Ukraine to preserve its integrity?” Zakharova wrote in a Telegram post.