Ukraine and Russia must both agree to come to the table for talks to end their countries' three-year war, as both must want peace for it to happen, retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills said on
Newsmax, Sunday.
"This is about peacemaking, and that implies negotiations," Mills told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "In peacemaking, you have to both parties. Both parties have to be interested in stopping the fighting. I'm not absolving either side here."
His comments came in response to an interview by Secretary of State Marco Rubio Sunday, in which he told ABC News' "This Week" that while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is demanding security agreements in connection with signing a deal with the United States on mineral rights, "you first have to have a peace" before such agreements can be signed.
"We don't even know if peace is possible, and this was understood by the Ukrainians," said Rubio. "It was explained to them repeatedly … we're trying to get [Vladimir] Putin ot a negotiating table."
Mills told Newsmax that Europe has a "very poor track record over the last 100 years of peacemaking and peacekeeping."
"Whether it be the outcome of the First World War, the lead-up to the Second World War, NATO, let's even come forward to Bosnia, the Europeans have time and time again shown an inability to keep peace or make peace," said Mills. "They have a very, very poor track record. I know that it's a nation in conflict."
But he warned that the United States could be ensnared in another European war, so "we have to do better."
Meanwhile, Friday's heated meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the Ukrainian leader's "opportunity to win or lose," said Mills.
"The Russians already had their pre-meeting on the multiparty talks in Saudi Arabia," he said. "This was Zelenskyy's turn. It didn't turn out very well, so there has to be a reset on this."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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