Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, was recently interviewed on LiveNOW from FOX about the latest out of Ukraine, and whether or not Ukraine is closer to a ceasefire with Russia, especially after the U.S. has backed down on some of its assistance.

“That's clearly what President Trump is pushing for very hard—a ceasefire—but the way the U.S. is going about it is not inclined to make a ceasefire take place and last. All the pressure at the moment seems to be on the Ukrainians to show that they're willing to settle and that they want peace,” says Taylor.

“But the country that started the war is Russia and its Russia that's on the attack. And Russia sees that the U.S. is pulling back from supporting Ukraine and stopping military and intelligence assistance. Even medical assistance to Ukrainian soldiers has been suspended, it's been reported, so there's no real incentive for Russia to stop right now. The incentive is for them to accelerate their attacks and President Trump, yesterday, in the Oval Office, seemed to acknowledge that in saying anyone in Putin's position would do what he's doing,” Taylor says. 

“So I don't understand exactly what the strategy is on the U.S. side. If we want there to be a ceasefire and if we want there to be peace, the country that needs to be put under pressure is the country that started the invasion and is waging war against an independent country across its border. So the strategy seems backwards and I don't see this leading to a lasting peace unless equal or more pressure is put on the Russian side,” says Taylor.

Taylor was also interviewed on UNITED24 about the implications of stalled peace talks, the failures of past agreements, and why any future peace deal without solid guarantees could lead to even greater risks for Ukraine.