(NewsNation) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking a stance on the Ukraine war that breaks with his own party’s view, suggesting the United States should push harder for a negotiated peace and stop spending money to support Kyiv.
Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker says Kennedy’s viewpoint is “completely wrong.”
“Ukraine was minding its own business, a peaceful country sitting there next to Russia, and Russia attacks it. Why? Because Vladimir Putin wants to rebuild the Russian empire, and Ukraine, in his mind, doesn’t exist as a separate country, separate national identity, separate language,” Volker said Thursday on “CUOMO.” “He just thinks they’re confused Russians and he wants to take it over.”
Kennedy is an outspoken critic of U.S. support for Ukraine and said at a NewsNation town hall Wednesday that Putin felt backed into a corner because of NATO’s eastward expansion.
Russia has “legitimate security concerns” about moving NATO into Ukraine, he said: “We would never let them put missile systems in Canada or Mexico; we would invade if they did.”
It’s a position at odds with a majority of Democratic and Republicans lawmakers who have continued to approve military aid for Ukraine. The United States has committed more than $40 billion worth of weapons, ammunitions and vehicles.
“They’ve asked us for help, and we’re giving them the equipment in order to help them defend themselves,” Volker said. “This war would have never happened without Putin’s aggression, and it can only stop when Russia stops its aggression.”
Kennedy said he doesn’t know exactly what a negotiated peace would look like, or whether it would mean ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said it would mean exactly that.
“You’ve just rewarded the aggressor, who would just take that time to reorganize, rebuild his forces and come back again in some certain period of time,” Quigley said. “And it isn’t just Ukraine he’s targeting — it’s Moldova, it’s the Baltics and more.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said previously that Ukraine’s goal is to drive Russian forces completely out of the country. That includes the Donbas, a region in the east that has been controlled by Russian separatists for years.
The war has been dragging on since the invasion in February 2022, and last week, Putin faced his toughest internal challenge to power yet when the head of the Wagner private militia force took over a military headquarters and then marched a convoy toward Moscow.
The man, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has since been exiled to Belarus and his fighters allowed to go with him, return home or join the Russian army.
Likening the situation to a mafia relationship, Volker said Putin has been damaged by the short-lived rebellion.
“He was seen as an absolute leader, definitely in control of everything … but (the rebellion) shows that Putin doesn’t have the grip that people think that he did,” Volker said.
With Putin challenged, Quigley maintains that it’s imperative the U.S. keep supporting the defense of Kyiv.
“This is a desperate Putin who can’t lose this war,” Quigley said. “He’s capable of anything. A desperate Putin is a very dangerous Putin.”