United States President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to end the conflict between kyiv and Moscow within 24 hours, is in fact preparing the “capitulation of Ukraine”, which would be “unbearable for the Ukrainians” and a ” humiliation” for Europeans, former French President François Hollande warned on Sunday.
What Donald Trump “says, even with excess, he realizes with excess”, commented on Radio J the former head of state, who was in office partly at the same time as the American billionaire, at the end of his five-year term at the Élysée.
On the Ukrainian issue, Donald Trump “will stop helping” kyiv, “which will pose a problem of imbalance of power,” predicts Mr. Hollande. As part of a peace conference, he will then give “to Vladimir Putin all the ground he has acquired” since the Russian offensives of 2014 and 2022, “and then he will say to the Europeans: +for the rest, it is up to you to guarantee the security of Ukraine, if you think it necessary, and it is up to you to help Ukraine with its reconstruction,” added the former guest of the Élysée.
In short, “it is not peace that he (Donald Trump) is preparing, it is the capitulation of Ukraine,” he said. “Giving Vladimir Putin the benefit of force against international law would be serious and even unbearable for the Ukrainians,” and would raise fears of “other offensives led by Russia in the years to come,” he said. he warned.
The massive attack carried out on Sunday against the Ukrainian energy network – which also left at least eight dead and around twenty injured – is part of this context, according to Mr. Hollande: “It is to exhaust the Ukrainians, for the impress”, and force them to “give in” during this “famous negotiation”, he analyzed.
Faced with this prospect, Europe, and particularly France and Germany, must remain united, underlined Mr. Hollande, who called on his successor Emmanuel Macron to “take a strong initiative” with the German government which will emerge from the polls. in February. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a “bad signal” by calling Vladimir Putin on Friday, Paris and Berlin, argued Mr. Hollande, will have to speak with one voice from February, to “stand up to Donald Trump » and “give nothing to Russia”.
