At the beginning of the interview, Dr. Frank Umbach referred to the recent visits of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow. These visits should be seen as symbolic of the “unprofessionalism of U.S. foreign and security policy,” as Witkoff traveled to Moscow without his own interpreter and consequently provided Donald Trump with misinformation due to incorrect translations. According to Dr. Umbach, this led Trump to mistakenly expect that Vladimir Putin would be willing to partially withdraw the Russian army from the Donbass region.
Dr. Umbach was skeptical about a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. Russia has ruled out bilateral meetings with Ukraine below the presidential level and is still unwilling to abandon or even limit its war aims, the security expert said. Rather, the war in Ukraine could be ended by strengthening military support for the Ukrainian armed forces, said Dr. Umbach, referring to Clausewitz. If war aims are set by politicians, politicians must provide the military with “strategic instruments” to achieve those very war aims, according to Dr. Umbach.