Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made claims during a Wednesday interview on Fox News, alleging that the United States and Ukrainian “ultra-nationalists” exerted pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to prevent peace negotiations with Russia.
Kennedy’s appearance on ‘Fox News Tonight’ focused on sharing his perspective on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Guest host Piers Morgan referenced Kennedy’s previous remarks, where he advocated for immediate negotiations to settle the conflict. Morgan noted that under the current circumstances, such negotiations would likely involve territorial concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kennedy responded by asserting that Putin was already willing to sign a peace treaty to resolve the Ukraine and Russia conflict. He suggested that external forces, including the United States and certain Ukrainian factions labeled as “ultra-nationalists,” hindered the potential for peace by pressuring President Zelenskyy.
“Well, it gets harder and harder but, you know, we have to remember that Putin twice agreed to sign to treaties that would have given us essentially everything,” RFK said.
“What Putin wanted in both these treaties, in the Minsk Accords and the April 2022 treaty, was that the Donbas got to stay part of Ukraine, but it would be able to protect its ethnic Russian population from violence by the government, which was a U.S.-installed government, that NATO stay out of Ukraine and that they de-Nazify the government. So, all those things seem really reasonable. Both Zelenskyy and Putin agreed in April 2022 to sign that agreement, and then Russians acted in good faith by beginning to withdraw their troops from the Ukraine.”
Morgan pushed back at the notion that Nazism is a prevailing ideology in the Ukrainian government. Morgan pointed out Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.
RFK claimed Zelenskyy once sought peace with Russia but reversed course after allegedly being threatened by alleged ultra-nationalists in Ukraine. Kennedy also claimed The United States pressured Zelenskyy against making peace.
“President Zelenskyy ran in 2019 on a peace platform that he promised to sign the Minsk Accords. Now, when he got in there, he suddenly pivoted. Why? Because, he was threatened by people, by ultra-nationalists within his government with death if he made peace with Putin and because we pressured him not to make peace.”
It is unclear whether The United States explicitly pressured Ukraine out of signing any peace deals with Russia. U.S. national security officials engaged in secret discussions with Russians over the potentiality of ceding some Ukrainian territory in exchange for a peace negotiation, according to a June NBC News report.
