Dmytro Kuleba, former Foreign Minister of Ukraine, presents his new book “Ukraine 2030 – Vision of a Nation” in an interview with the German Press Agency.
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U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be concerned about Ukraine’s post-war future, the country’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC amid a rapid escalation of tensions between Kyiv and Washington this week.
“I don’t think he cares. Okay, let me put it even simpler. I believe he doesn’t care. I believe he does not care about any single country in the world except the United States,” he told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick Thursday.
Kuleba, who led Ukraine’s foreign ministry from 2020 until his resignation in the fall of 2024, said Trump’s only concern was that Ukraine did not turn into a failed state like Afghanistan, and that his Ukraine plan “does not collapse in a way that will expose his weakness to the whole world … because he has zero tolerance to failures.”
“We know him, and this is the issue. So it’s not about telling him how good Ukraine is and how it deserves his support. It doesn’t make sense, because that’s not how he thinks,” Kuleba said. CNBC has contacted the White House for a response to Kuleba’s comments and is awaiting a response.
Kuleba left office in Sept. 2024 amid a major cabinet reshuffle designed to refresh the Ukrainian government and bring new ideas to the fore, at a time when Russian forces started making concerted gains in the east of country.
The former wartime minister’s comments to CNBC come as those territorial advances continue, while Kyiv’s relationship with the U.S., its biggest military backer since the start of the war in 2022, appears to be deteriorating by the day.
Ties have been strained since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The White House leader and senior Republican officials have expressed skepticism that Ukraine can win the conflict, holding it has become a war of attrition.
Tensions between Ukraine and the U.S. came to a head this week, as senior White House officials met their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia with the aim of laying the groundwork for peace talks on Ukraine, all the while excluding Kyiv’s officials from participating in discussions.
Relations between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then went from bad to worse on Wednesday as the latter described the U.S. president as “living in a Russian disinformation bubble.”
Trump hit back, describing Ukraine’s wartime leader was a “dictator without elections,” referring to the lack of a national ballot in the embattled country since 2019. Ukraine has suspended elections amid martial law.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a press conference in Kyiv on February 19, 2025, in which stated that Russia’s leadership are “liars” after a Russian drone attack that followed talks in Saudi Arabia between Russian and US officials.
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Trump astounded Ukraine and its European allies last week when he announced he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that the leaders had agreed to hold peace talks to end the war. Trump said he had then informed Zelenskyy of the situation, making the gesture appear as an afterthought.
Kuleba was cynical about the prospect of peace talks, saying Putin was not interested in a deal.
“[Putin] wants to avoid upsetting Donald Trump. That’s his strategy. He does not want a deal. He does not want a strip of Ukrainian land. He does not want Ukrainian NATO. He wants no Ukraine. He wants Ukraine not to exist. And there should be no illusions about that,” Kuleba said.
“You can already see very different tones and approaches on both sides. And the fact that the United States delegation seems so excited is a bit weird. I think they need to slow down, because they have to understand the side they’re working with,” he said.
Kuleba said the Trump administration had overestimated its ability to influence Putin, claiming that the Russian president had an innate distrust of the West.
“Putin does not trust Trump for [a] very simple reason, because he does not know whether Trump’s promises will hold … and he does not need a temporary solution. He knows that the best guarantee for him [is] that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO, and the non-existence of Ukraine. He is in his conviction that the West [has] always betrayed him … So there are some very, very big hurdles ahead of Trump.”
CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for a response to Kuleba’s comments and is awaiting a response.
U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg was in Kyiv on Thursday to liaise with Zelenskyy, but doubts linger over the value the meeting. Kellogg was absent from U.S. delegation that went to Riyadh earlier his week.
The Ukrainian president and Kellogg were meant to hold a joint press conference following their meeting but this was cancelled at the U.S.’ request, Ukraine’s presidential office said, according to a Reuters report.
U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 20, 2025.
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Ukraine’s current Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had discussed ways to achieve a just and lasting peace with the U.S. envoy.
“I affirmed Ukraine’s willingness to achieve peace through strength and our vision for the necessary steps,” Sybiha said on social media platform X, adding that he had “reiterated that the security of Ukraine and the transatlantic is indivisible.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Ukraine it needed to dial down criticism of the U.S., saying U.S. officials were trying to secure a peace deal acceptable to all sides.
“They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” Waltz told Fox News, referring to a critical minerals deal in which Trump proposed to Ukraine that Kyiv should grant the U.S. 50% ownership of its rare earth minerals as recompense for military aid it has given Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has reportedly ordered his ministers not to sign off on any deal, which Trump had previously claimed would give the U.S. access to $500 billion worth of rare earth minerals, saying the proposal was too focused on U.S. interests and offered Ukraine very little in return.
