Glen Grant, a retired British Army lieutenant colonel, has recently been to Kyiv.
He tells BBC Breakfast he sees no chance of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia any time soon.
"People need to be clear - what the US is trying to do is get Ukraine to capitulate," he says. "To give in to Russia – there is nothing nice about this at all.
"The reason for that is quite simple. Trump is unable to – or perhaps unwilling to – do anything against Russia, but he senses Ukraine is a weak link in the game, so they are going to try and bully Zelensky – even try again to get him to step down and put in a more compliant president, in the same way as Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
"But I just don't see Zelensky will do that," Grant says.
US Is Trying To Capitulate To Ukraine - Retired Lieutenant Colonel Tells BBC
American volunteer soldiers fighting in Ukraine say that they feel “betrayed” by their own country after the U.S. halted military aid and stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv in early March. “(U.S. President Donald Trump) betrayed every one of us,” a U.S. Army veteran, who goes by the callsign Goldfish, told the Kyiv Independent.
The American soldiers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent said they were “horrified” by their country’s recent decisions and the ensuing consequences on the ground in Ukraine. “Never have I ever thought that I would be listening to any U.S. public figure — let alone the president — openly declare support for an aggressor,” Goldfish, a 33-year-old Alaskan currently serving with the 25th Airborne Brigade, said.
“If we stand here now on the side of the oppressor, literally telling Ukraine, either submit or cease to exist, that's not peace – that’s subjugation.”
Understanding the significance of U.S. military aid and the immense sacrifice that Ukraine has already made to defend its country, some American fighters hoped that Trump wouldn’t abandon Ukraine like that, soldier Levi Perez, 36, said. “Deep down in our very souls, we knew it was coming,” Perez, an Alaskan who goes by his callsign Joker, told the Kyiv Independent.
"Our reputation for the foreseeable future is pretty much gone,” he said, noting that other Western countries are losing trust in the U.S. and may turn away from further political and economic ties. “We are beyond the point of control (where we can avoid World War III) because Russia is not going to retreat completely, they won't give back the stolen territory, and Ukraine won't let them keep the territory,” Perez said, referring to the roughly 20% of the Ukrainian land that Russia occupies.
A former police officer from a southern city in the U.S. currently serving in the Ukrainian military says that he’s most worried about the bans’ potential cost especially on the civilian lives. “The civilians are going to suffer exponentially, almost more, because now with the lack of intelligence, we don't have as much information about rocket and drone strikes coming from Russian territory,” the police officer-turned-soldier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his unit’s protocols, told the Kyiv Independent.
The most terrifying part is seeing how the U.S.’ next steps will impact Ukraine and its people, because “Ukrainian people are incredible,” according to a fellow American soldier, who goes by the callsign Gimli. “The nightmare that keeps me up the most is whether my country will ever recover,” Gimli, a 33-year-old former U.S. army serviceman from Washington, told the Kyiv Independent. “Or if Trump and the Kremlin have completely crippled the future of my country.”
Gimli and other American soldiers said they had a completely different vision of their country — a democratic nation they believed had always tried to do the right thing despite setbacks and to help the world as “defenders of freedom.” Now, they say they feel humiliated.
“I accepted the fact that I just may not have a country to go back to because I’m not going to go back and live under a fascist regime,” he said, adding that he hopes that “the Ukrainians can forgive my people someday.” The American soldiers interviewed said their hopes were now hanging on Europe to step up its support for Ukraine in what could be its darkest months to come.
‘He Betrayed Every One Of Us’ – US Soldiers in Ukraine Speak Out After Trump’s Military Aid Halt
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