Former U.S. President Joe Biden said his successor Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia is a form of “modern-day appeasement” that will never satisfy Moscow.
Speaking to the BBC in what the broadcaster said was his first interview since leaving the White House, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine is part of “mother Russia” and “anybody who thinks he’s going to stop is just foolish”.
“I just don’t understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he’s going to take significant portions of land that aren’t his, that that’s going to satisfy him,” Biden said in the interview which was broadcast on Wednesday and the BBC said was recorded on Monday.
Trump has changed U.S. policy toward the war in Ukraine, pressing Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire while easing pressure on Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022. Trump has said he wants to stop the killing.
In the interview, Biden expressed concern that “Europe is going to lose confidence in the certainty of America and the leadership of America”.
Europe’s leaders were “wondering, well, what do I do now?… Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?” he said.
The former president said he was dismayed by the explosive meeting in February in the White House between Trump, his top officials and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“I found it sort of beneath America in the way that took place,” Biden said.