The president-elect has consistently said his priority is to end the war and end what he characterizes as a drain on US resources in the form of military aid to Ukraine.
However, he has yet to reveal how he is going to do it – and is likely to hear different visions for Ukraine’s future from his various advisers.
Mr. Lanza, a political adviser to Mr. Trump since his 2016 campaign, did not mention areas of eastern Ukraine, but said that returning Crimea to Russia was unrealistic and “not a goal of the United States.”
“If Zelensky says that we will stop these hostilities, there will be peace only after the return of Crimea, we have news for President Zelensky: Crimea is gone,” he told the BBC World Service Weekend program.
“And if it’s your priority to get Crimea back and make American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.”
The US has never sent US troops to fight in Ukraine, and Kiev has not asked for US troops to fight on its behalf. Ukraine only asked for American military aid to arm its soldiers.
Mr. Lanza said he has great respect for the Ukrainian people, describing him as a man with a lion’s heart. But he said the US priority was “peace and an end to the killing”.
“What we are going to say to Ukraine, you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision of peace. It is not a vision of victory, but it is a vision of peace. And let’s start a frank conversation. “, he said.
After taking office, Trump is expected to hold peace talks with a close circle of aides.
An unnamed National Security Council aide who previously served under Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday: “Anyone — no matter how high up in Trump’s circle — who claims to have a different view or more detailed knowledge of his plans for Ukraine , just doesn’t do it. know what he or she is talking about.’
They said the former president “makes his own calls about national security issues” and has done so “many times at this point.”
Trump spoke with Zelensky after winning the election, billionaire Elon Musk also participated in the conversation.
A source in the Ukrainian president’s office told the BBC that a “good long conversation” between Zelenskyi and Trump lasted “about half an hour.”
“It wasn’t really a conversation about very substantial things, but overall it was very warm and pleasant.”
Trump’s Democratic opponents accuse him of pandering to Russian President Vladimir Putin and say his approach to war is tantamount to a surrender of Ukraine that would endanger all of Europe.
Last month, Zelensky presented the “victory plan” to the Ukrainian parliament, which included a refusal to cede territories and sovereignty of Ukraine.
During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly said that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in one day,” but never gave more details.
The document, written by two of his former national security chiefs in May, said the US should continue supplying arms but make the support conditional on Kiev joining peace talks with Russia.
Ukraine should not give up the hope of regaining all its territory from Russian occupation, the newspaper notes, but it should conduct negotiations based on the current front lines.
