As high-ranking U.S. officials get ready for a meeting with a Russian delegation in Saudia Arabia on Sunday, there are growing concerns about how the Trump administration will pressure Moscow to prolong a temporary ceasefire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently agreed to pause attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which includes the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who are both set to attend the negotiations in Jeddah, stated that the next objective is to secure a ceasefire specifically in the Black Sea region.
“It would be viewed as a threat to Russia,” Koffler said.
When asked how U.S. ownership of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could affect negotiations, former CIA Moscow station chief Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital he is not convinced it will have much of an effect on actually securing peace.
“Show me the deal. We don’t have a deal yet. We have a ceasefire that’s been broken on energy infrastructure,” Hoffman pointed out. He noted that even after Putin agreed to stop attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure on Tuesday, the following morning a drone strike hit a railway power system in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which led to civilian power outages.
President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. (Kremlin Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
“It’s just another discussion point. There are so many other issues that are of far greater importance. What Putin would probably do for his negotiating strategy is to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll let you do that United States of America, but I want this in return’. It’s always going to be that way,” Hoffman added, reflecting on his own negotiations with Russian counterparts during his time with the CIA.
“He wants Ukraine. He wants to topple the government. That’s his objective,” Hoffman added. “Whatever deals he agrees to in the short term, what he really wants to do is destroy Ukraine’s ability to deter Russia in the future and to give Russia maximum advantage.
“Right now, he can gain through negotiation what he can’t gain on the battlefield.”
While a number of issues will be discussed, the former CIA Moscow station chief said the real key in accomplishing any kind of ceasefire will need to be an authentic signal from Putin that he actually wants the war to end.
“The big question that John Ratcliffe has to answer is explain to me why Putin wants a ceasefire. I would argue he doesn’t,” Hoffman said in reference to the director of the CIA. “There is zero indication that he wants one.
Ukrainian servicemen fire with a French self-propelled 155 mm/52-caliber gun Caesar toward Russian positions at a front line in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas June 15, 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
“If he wanted to stop the war and stop the killing of his own people and stop spilling so much blood and treasure, he would have stopped it,” Hoffman argued.
Ultimately, Hoffman said, when looking at how most major wars have concluded, history suggests the war in Ukraine can only truly end on the battlefield.
“One side loses, one side wins, or both sides don’t have the means to fight anymore,” Hoffman said. “That’s how the wars end.”
