Kurt Volker to Newsmax: Investors Will Power Ukraine Rebuild

Ukraine has continued to be a "viable" economy amid its three-year war with Russia and it promises to grow once the worry of war is over, former ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker told Newsmax on Monday.

Volker joined "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" to talk about reconstruction in Ukraine once an agreement is hammered out.

"Some of the rebuilding is going to be done by people who want to invest. ... They had 5% GDP growth in '23; about 4% in '24. They're a viable, functioning economy," Volker said. "And their growth has been retarded because people are worried about the war. Once you lift that worry, Ukraine's economy is going to grow, people are going to invest and that will create dynamism on its own."

He added that Ukraine will have financing options for government-run projects as well.

"So there's a lot of capacity out there once the war is stopped," Volker told Van Susteren, adding that a ceasefire "can work for both sides."

"[I]f there is a full ceasefire … that is a chance for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to reload and attack again. But it's also a chance for Ukraine to have its people come back, to rebuild the economy, to integrate into Europe, and to deter future Russian attacks," he said.

Volker also stressed that while Ukraine joining NATO is a red line for Russia in the ceasefire negotiations, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had "nothing to do with NATO."

"[I]t is very important that your viewers understand that," Volker said, dating to Russia's attack of Crimea in 2014.

"There was no movement whatsoever toward Ukraine joining the EU or NATO at that time. In fact, you had a president in Ukraine [Viktor Yanukovych] who pulled out of an association agreement with the EU; NATO not even on the table, and people protested and he killed 100 people, and the parliament voted him out as president, including members of his own party. And he fled the country," Volker said. "That's what prompted Putin to invade because he realized, 'Oh wait, my guy is not running Ukraine anymore, I better go take it over.' And that is his ambition.

"Since then, he has written about this, he has spoken about this. He sees himself as rebuilding the Russian Empire, and Ukraine is vital, in his mind, to building that empire; he wants to rule over Ukraine. It has nothing to do with NATO," Volker added.

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