(LONDON) — Dmytro Kuleba, who served as Ukraine’s foreign minister from 2020 to 2024 and was the youngest-ever appointed to the post, has no plans to rush back into the fray. But he retains deep convictions about Ukraine’s ongoing struggle against Russia’s full-scale invasion — and about the man he considers the prime obstacle to peace in Europe.
“It is the saddest thing, I have to say, but I do not see the end to this war in sight,” Kuleba told ABC News in a video interview from Kyiv, just under a year after he left his role as part of a sweeping government reshuffle.
“A ceasefire is possible, but ending the war as a result of the ceasefire does not seem to be possible at this stage,” Kuleba said. Even if Russian President Vladimir Putin “agrees to a ceasefire in order to avoid mounting pressure from the United States — the threat of mounting pressure from the United States — it will only be a pause,” he said.
No longer encumbered by the demands put on the country’s top diplomat, Kuleba has been speaking frankly on Kyiv’s situation and outlook since departing his former role.
Kuleba’s country remains under existential threat, more than three-and-a-half years into a full-scale Russian invasion. As the war wears on and its toll rises unrelentingly, President Donald Trump’s efforts to force a ceasefire and peace appear to be stalled.
Friday’s planned summit in Alaska between Trump and Putin has suddenly raised hopes that a deal may be possible, according to observers. But Kuleba urged caution over any apparent breakthroughs — particularly if they offer strategic opportunities for the Kremlin.
“There is a famous saying that if you see the light in the end of the tunnel, make sure it is not an incoming train,” Kuleba said. “The light of ceasefire in the end of the tunnel of the Russia-Ukraine war is actually an incoming train.”
Ukraine has backed the previous U.S. demand for a full and immediate ceasefire, during which time a peace settlement can be reached. Putin has repeatedly dodged ceasefire proposals, suggesting that the “new territorial realities” of Russian occupation of swaths of southern and eastern Ukraine must be recognized as part of any settlement.
Putin has also dismissed Kyiv’s offers of a direct meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy — a leader he has repeatedly and incorrectly framed as illegitimate, although he is a democratically elected leader.
Putin, Kuleba said, has shown no sign of abandoning his maximalist war goals, with or without a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. A pause in the fighting may only prove an opportunity for Moscow to prepare its next offensive, he said.
“I think Putin has said enough over the last years and Russia has done enough over the last years to make the point that their strategic goal is subjugating Ukraine as a whole,” he said.
‘He cannot lose this war’
As Ukraine’s top diplomat, Kuleba was deeply involved in peace talks with Russia that sought to end the full-scale invasion that began in 2022. In March 2022, just weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Kuleba met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Turkey.
More than three years later, he said Putin’s fixation on a Russian historical narrative imbued with disinformation and chauvinism remains the main obstacle to a long-term resolution.
“The only thing President Putin really cares about is what will be written about him in history books,” he said. “He just cannot lose this war. He can pretend he’s winning it. But he can never drop the ambition, give up on the ambition, to subjugate Ukraine.”
Putin, Kuleba says, sees himself in the company of Russia’s great historic leaders like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great. All expanded the Russian empire — and subjugated the people and areas that now form Ukraine.
“He put all of his bets on this — this is his major legacy issue,” Kuleba said. “He throws everything into the fire of his legacy — his people, his country, his future, its future — because he doesn’t care about them.”
Asked if the Russia-Ukraine war can end while Putin is still alive, Kuleba responded, “No.”
“We can have a war of a much lower intensity with Russia,” he added. “But I cannot imagine eternal peace between Russia and Ukraine achieved during President Putin’s lifetime.”
“The West should not be afraid of who comes next,” Kuleba said when asked whether the next Russian president could be equally problematic. “Nothing helps Putin more to stay in power than the fear entrenched in Western intellectual circles that someone even worse than him can move in,” he said.
“This is a flawed strategy,” he said. “Ukrainians are paying the highest price for it. Europe will be paying a very high price for it if it continues like this.”
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy and his officials are sticking to their key demands. Ukraine’s intended accession to NATO and the EU is enshrined in the national constitution. Zelenskyy has also repeatedly dismissed any suggestion of surrendering Ukrainian territory in any peace deal. “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” he said last week.
Will Trump ‘walk the walk?’
Ukraine’s Western partners still have not done enough to help Kyiv succeed, Kuleba said, though he stressed that all Ukrainians are “immensely grateful and we will always remember it.”
European nations have collectively given some $182 billion in aid of all kinds to Ukraine as of April 2025, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy — a research group based in Germany that tracks support from foreign governments toward Ukraine. The U.S. has contributed around $133.5 billion, the institute said.
“I’ve been asked many times over the last three years — has the West supported Ukraine enough?” Kuleba said. “If the war is still raging, it means that the answer is no, not enough.”
Trump’s return to office posed the danger of a total U.S. withdrawal from the conflict. Recent months, though, have seen growing White House frustration at Putin’s apparent obstinance in continuing his war.
Kuleba sees a clear “evolution” in Trump’s approach. “He spent the first months of his presidency giving all sticks to Ukraine and offering all carrots to Russia as a negotiating strategy. It failed. So, now what we see today is his attempt to rebalance sticks and carrots among belligerent parties.”
Ukraine hears Trump’s threats, but is yet to see action, Kuleba said. “Putin understands only force,” he added. Without it, “he will come to the same conclusion he made about previous administrations and European governments — they talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk.”
Trump, unlike Putin, is constrained by time, Kuleba said. “Putin will not be in a rush to accommodate Trump.”
The two salient options, Kuleba said, are “arming Ukraine and stripping Russia of its oil revenues. That’s it. Everything else may sound good, will be helpful, but it has zero chance to change the tide. A combination of these two factors is crucial to make Putin seriously think about revising his goals in this war.”
Meanwhile, Kuleba said Europeans should be bracing for the war to come to them.
Putin, Kuleba said, only needs one day of hesitation at NATO and European Union headquarters in Brussels to press an attack. “As it looks today, Putin will have his day of hesitation,” he said.
“Both headquarters realize that and they work tirelessly to mitigate this risk, to create a more holistic, coherent space. But I’m afraid there is still a long way to go to achieve that.”
Ukrainian policy still reflects Kuleba’s outlook, though he is no longer involved in its creation. His replacement, current Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, has continued Kuleba’s work in pressing Western partners to provide more aid and to do so faster.
Along with Zelenskyy’s office, Sybiha has repeatedly warned that without intense Western pressure, Putin and his government cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith or to abide by any ceasefire or peace deal.
Ukraine’s ‘red lines’
Kuleba offered a sober assessment of Ukraine’s military situation, as Russian forces continue their grinding advance in the east of the country and expand their long-range drone and missile bombardments of cities across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s size, its industrial capabilities and Western support bolster its war effort, he said. “Remove one of these elements in the equation and then everything collapses,” he added.
And for all the talk of expanded American and European military aid, Kuleba cautioned against investing too much hope in any silver bullets.
“We should forget once and forever the idea of a magic weapon that will change the game,” he said. “This tune has been played so many times over three years and none of it worked,” Kuleba continued, recalling drawn-out debates and sensationalism over the supply of weapons systems like the ATACMS, Western tanks and F-16 fighter jets.
“What is required is the systemic effort to provide Ukraine with the weapons — all types of weapons — and intelligence information that it requires, in sufficient quantities and in good time that it requires to stabilize the front line.”
“The moment Putin has no news to deliver to his people that he’s making progress on the front line will also be an important factor in making him rethink or revise his goals in this war,” he said.
Ukraine has its own red lines in negotiations, he said. He said the government will not have public backing to agree to legally recognize Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory, limit the size and sophistication of Ukraine’s armed forces or abandon Kyiv’s NATO ambitions — a goal enshrined in the national constitution.
The government will not be able to agree to legally recognize Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory — which the nati — or limit the size and sophistication of Ukraine’s armed forces or abandon Kyiv’s NATO ambitions, Kuleba said.
“It would be a political suicide to do that,” he warned — a sentiment broadly shared by Ukrainian political analysts, though such thorny concessions will no doubt be under discussion within the president’s office.
Recent polling suggests Kuleba is correct. A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in July and August, for example, found that 76% of Ukrainians rejected Russia’s proposed peace plan, which would include Ukraine abandoning NATO accession, limiting its army and surrendering several southern and eastern regions.
Recent weeks have shown the potency of Ukrainian people power. Street protests erupted around the country last month after Zelenskyy’s government and the Ukrainian parliament approved a new law curtailing the independence of two key anti-corruption agencies.
The president was forced into a quick reversal as Ukrainian civil society and Western leaders expressed their concern over the bill. The brief crisis “was a very healthy thing for Ukrainian democracy,” Kuleba said. “I think that we came out of this crisis stronger than we were before that.”
Ukrainians, he added, are keenly focused on their political future despite the ongoing war. Last month’s anti-corruption groundswell only sharpened such sentiment, he said. The turmoil also revitalized talk of the post-war elections — currently delayed due to martial law — that will shape the country’s path, he added.
As for Kuleba, the former minister said he is in no hurry to return to public office. “It makes me very happy to spend more time at home,” he said.
“A diplomat’s life is when you know foreign countries better than your own country. So, I’m now correcting this professional mistake,” he added.
When the war does end, Kuleba said, Ukraine could face a political reckoning.
“When the war suppresses the politics for three years, the politics do not go away,” he explained. “The moment there is no war, the moment there is an open, full-fledged democratic political process, all of this energy is going to burst out. And there is a huge, big risk in that.”
Millions of veterans will form a potent voting bloc, he added. “I do not believe that there is a threat of a military takeover in Ukraine — no, this is not going to happen,” Kuleba said. “But people with combat experience will have a different sense of justice. And they will be demanding a higher role in politics.”
The good news, Kuleba said, is that the war is forging a “clear vision” of Ukraine’s Western — not Eastern — future.
“We will be far more politically consolidated in the sense that independence of Ukraine, its Western orientation, will not be questioned,” he said. “But we will be divided along the lines of populism and understanding of the sense of justice in the post-war era.”
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