Former adviser to US President Donald Trump, Fiona Hill, has claimed in a new book called New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West that Trump believed that Ukraine “must be part of Russia”. Hill, who was the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US National Security Council between 2017 and 2019, told the book’s author, New York Times reporter David Sanger, that Trump “really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state”. The book also alleges that Trump’s view of Ukraine was “essentially identical” to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a year after Trump left office.
Putin had previously stated in a speech that “Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space.” Last month, in a speech marking ten years since the annexation of Crimea, Putin declared that parts of occupied Ukraine were part of a “New Russia.” Hill’s comments have only added to growing concerns about Trump’s attitude toward Russia and his unpredictability, with European leaders reportedly becoming increasingly worried about the possibility of a second Trump term in office.
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