Assistant to US President: Russia wants the world to forget about Ukraine
"Russia is trying to make the world forget about Ukraine" – stated the Special Assistant to the US President, Celeste Wallander, in her interview to Meduza. According to her, Kremlin, in being actively involved in Syria, is trying to make the West forget about the war in Ukraine.
“That could be partly true. It’s one of their goals. But I want to emphasize that the USA is ready to cooperate with Russia to find a solution for the Syrian crisis. But Ukraine remains the unsolved problem, and you can’t just forget one and to focus on another, it’s necessary to solve both. There is less information from Ukraine, but we continue our work on ensuring compliance with the Minsk agreement” – stated Wallander.
The Assistant to the U.S President added that Washington continues to remind Moscow that Ukraine isn’t forgotten and Minsk agreement signed by President Putin has to be respected.
Commenting on the possibility of the US accepting Russia's annexation of Crimea in exchange for Russian compliance with the Minsk Agreement, she stated that the USA doesn't recognize the annexation of Crimea .
She said that while Russia might be having certain success in Syria, it is losing strategically.
Russian military planes started air strikes in Syria on September 30.
The West accused Moscow of using its military campaign to strengthen Bashar al-Assad’s regime but not to fight extremism.