Sources close to Trump say US-Russia negotiations can end war in Ukraine

Donald Trump Jr, US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s son and key campaign adviser, and Robert Kennedy Jr, former presidential candidate who joined the Trump campaign, have said that the US and Russia have to negotiate in order to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump Jr and Robert Kennedy Jr argue in The Hill that the fact that Russia has so far failed to respond to the crossing of what had previously been thought to be red lines – from strikes on Crimea and Russian territory, to Ukraine’s allies agreeing to give it F-16 fighter jets – is not a sign of the Kremlin’s weakness but rather of its "restraint".

"The hawks in the Biden administration seem to have forgotten that Russia is a nuclear power," they write. "Putin has signaled numerous times that Russia would use nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances," Trump Jr and Kennedy Jr continue, alluding to Russian leader Vladimir Putin claiming that Russia would use nuclear weapons if its territorial integrity was threatened. 

They believe that the Biden administration allowing Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia would trigger a nuclear war.

"There is no remaining step between firing U.S. missiles deep into Russian territory and a nuclear exchange. We cannot get any closer to the brink than this. And for what? To ‘weaken Russia’? To control Ukraine’s minerals? No vital American interest is at stake," Trump Jr and Kennedy Jr write.

They believe that the idea that Russian forces could invade NATO countries, which is an image Vice President Kamala Harris conjured during the 10 September presidential debate, is "absurd".

"For one thing, Russia can barely wrest a few provinces from Ukraine, which is by no means one of Europe’s great powers. Secondly, Russia made its war aims very clear at the outset – most notably Ukrainian neutrality and a halt to NATO’s eastward expansion," Trump Jr and Kennedy Jr argue.

They conclude their column by arguing that it is "time to de-escalate this conflict" through the US opening "direct negotiations with Moscow" and evoking Donald Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine if he takes office in November.

Donald Trump Jr is one of the key advisers to his father’s campaign, and Robert Kennedy Jr, who suspended his campaign in favour of Trump, is a member of Trump’s transition team, which will take over from Biden’s administration if Trump wins. It is unclear in what capacity Trump Jr and Kennedy Jr wrote their column and to what extent it reflects Donald Trump’s views.

Trump himself has been repeating for months in his election campaign that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. Trump claimed that his plan included negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin.

On 15 September, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once again promised to end the war in Ukraine if re-elected, saying he would do so with strength and intelligence.

Earlier, JD Vance, Trump’s vice president nominee, proposed a plan that included a ceasefire along the current line of contact, the creation of a "demilitarised zone" on Ukrainian territory, and Ukraine's rejection of NATO membership.