Robert Wilkie, who served as secretary of veterans affairs in President Donald Trump's first term, told Newsmax on Friday that the best solution for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would be something similar to the armistice that ended the Korean War.
Wilkie spoke on "The Chris Salcedo Show" as Trump was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for high-stakes peace talks in Anchorage, Alaska.
"The best thing that could happen is an armistice," Wilkie said. "If anybody is telling us we're going to kick the Russians out of what they occupy, then the next step is — they're not telling us — but to do that, we've got to take Moscow.
"I'm looking at something that looks more like more like North and South Korea. The Kims have never given up their desire to take over the Korean Peninsula, but they can't."
Wilkie was referring to the North Korean dictatorship launched in 1948 by Kim Il Sung, who was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il in 1994 and his grandson Kim Jong Un in 2011.
"Putin will never give up his desire to control Ukraine," Wilkie said. "But if we have an armistice line and the Europeans provide the Ukrainians with access to the EU as well as military hardware and the president's other efforts to force the Europeans, a group that has a GDP [gross domestic product] one-and-a-half times the size of America, to start building up their military as a deterrent to whatever fantasies Vladimir Putin has, then I think Ukraine can prosper behind that armistice line.
"But I am like you. I'm tired of hearing these people, the war crowd … who say that we've got to push [Putin] out. Well, then we're going to Moscow, and nobody's going to do that. The president is not going to do that. And Europe [is] certainly not capable of doing that."
Wilkie said the world has been down a similar path many times, pointing not only to the Korean War armistice in 1953 but also actions taken after World War II and during the Cold War.
"We've been down this road before with the Koreas, also with East and West Germany," he said. "And we don't have to recognize any Russian sovereignty over Ukraine territory. We didn't with the Baltics when Stalin seized Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Franklin Roosevelt said, we don't recognize it. And that gave those people hope. It ended up, you know, 60 years later. But America was there for them."
GET TODAY NEWSMAX+:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!
Reuters Institute reports NEWSMAX is one of the top news brands in the U.S.
You need to watch NEWSMAX today.
Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!
Find the NEWSMAX channel on your cable system – Go Here Now
BEST OFFER:
Sign up for NEWSMAX+ and get NEWSMAX, our streaming channel NEWSMAX2 and our military channel World at War.
Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.
Even get Jon Voight's special series and President Trump's comedy programs and much more!
Watch NEWSMAX+ on your smartphone or home TV app.
Watch NEWSMAX anytime, anywhere!
Start your FREE trial now: NewsmaxPlus.com
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.