President Donald Trump’s strategy of “peace through strength” is proving to be the only way to push Russian President Vladimir Putin toward serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudik on Newsmax Saturday.
“First of all, I think we need to be clear that the call by Putin to President Trump started exactly after the threat to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missile systems, which proves that the peace through strength strategy is the only way that is working with Putin and honestly, with anybody else,” Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, told Newsmax's "America Right Now."
She added that Putin's recent outreach to Trump came only after the U.S. president threatened to send Tomahawk missile systems to Ukraine, and pointed out that Ukraine has already accepted Trump’s proposal for talks.
“We agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, and we agreed to meet," Rudik said.
"So let’s go ahead and hope that the next meeting will be a productive one," she added. "Ukraine is ready to talk. We want the fighting to stop.”
However, Rudik said that Russia has yet to commit to a ceasefire, which she called the essential first step toward meaningful negotiations.
“Russia has not agreed to a ceasefire, and that needs to be a step one to the meaningful negotiations moving forward,” she said.
The Ukrainian lawmaker also urged stronger international economic measures against Moscow, saying that European nations continue to buy Russian gas and oil while calling for peace.
“Of course, there have been asks to our European partners, and we also hope that President Trump will help put more pressure on the sanctions to actually be working,” Rudik said.
She added that frozen Russian assets should be seized to help cover the costs of weapons and aid already provided to Ukraine.
“There are up to $200 billion that are right now stored in Belgium in Russian money,” she said.
“They are frozen," Rudik added, "but they should be confiscated and used to cover the expenses that Ukraine has, that the United States has to provide weapons to Ukraine.”
Rudik said Trump’s leadership could be “crucial” in pushing world leaders to take those steps.
“This is something where the president of the United States can be crucial in making those decisions and putting the pressure on the right people, to the right leaders,” she said.
The next step, she added, will be a trilateral meeting in Budapest in the coming weeks, where Trump, Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are expected to discuss a potential ceasefire.
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