Putin will be stopped

Pompeo also says that he will not allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to "pass" through Ukraine.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said today that after taking office, the newly elected US President Donald Trump will take a tougher stance on the Russian war in Ukraine than the one he expressed during the election campaign and that he will not allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to "pass" through Ukraine. 

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"President Trump will not allow Vladimir Putin to pass through Ukraine. Withdrawing funding from the Ukrainians would result in that and his entire team will tell him that," Pompeo said at the Global Forum in New York during a panel with former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, reports American magazine "Fortune".

Pompeo expressed hope that Trump will recognize the need for a firm Western stance on "Russia's aggression against Ukraine."

"It is absolutely important that the perception of the West stood up to this bully and this horrible guy (Putin) and did not allow evil to triumph and that is imperative. I hope that President Trump will recognize that as imperative," added the former US Secretary of State during the previous of the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021.

He emphasized that his support for U.S. aid to Ukraine differs from that of other Republican officials, noting that he wants to highlight the war in Ukraine as an example of the broader, global struggle between liberal democracies represented by the U.S. and its NATO allies and autocracies such as China, Iran and North Korea.

"Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are waiting to see if the West will win, or if they will give in to Putin," Pompeo pointed out. Panetta also confirmed this position and pointed out that in many ways Ukraine is also fighting for other democracies.

"The message that is being sent to Putin is a very important message that must be sent to Xi Jinping, must be sent to the Supreme Leader of Iran, must be sent to Kim Jong Un, that they cannot just stand in the way of sovereign democracies," Panetta said.

He added that he hoped Pompeo would be named to the role in another Trump administration.

"They need his worldview, and I really think the Trump administration in the first term benefited from people like Mike Pompeo," he said.

On Saturday, Trump announced on his social network "Truth Social" that Pompeo and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley will not rejoin his new administration.

Both Nikki Haley and Pompeo have supported Ukraine since the beginning of the war

During a campaign debate with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump twice avoided the question of whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. In his response, he pointed to the cost of military aid and claimed that reports on the number of people killed in the war were "false".

As of October, the U.S. has sent $64 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the State Department.

After the election, Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call that was joined by US billionaire Elon Musk, and in September he spoke with Zelensky during his visit to the US.

Just weeks after that meeting, Trump called Zelensky "the biggest salesman in the world" for receiving US military aid and blamed the Ukrainian leader for starting the war.

"He should never have allowed that war to start. The war is a loser," Trump said.

During the debate, Trump also said that if he wins the election, the deal will be done before he is inaugurated. In July, Trump said he would be able to do it in just "24 hours."