Dan Rice, former special adviser to Ukraine's commander in chief and now president of American University Kyiv, said Saturday that a fresh prisoner swap is welcome on humanitarian grounds but does not signal the end of the war, telling Newsmax that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains the obstacle to peace and that President Donald Trump will be at the center of any settlement.
Rice spoke on "America Right Now" a day after Ukraine and Russia exchanged 193 captured personnel each in a transfer both sides said was facilitated by the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
Returning Ukrainian troops included soldiers, border guards, and police, some wounded and some who had faced criminal charges in Russia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A West Point graduate and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who advised Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi from May 2022 until March 2023, Rice said Ukraine shares the U.S. military's creed to "never leave a fallen comrade" and called the reunions important.
He said exchanges cannot substitute for ending the conflict. "Until that psychopath decides to stop the war, the war will continue," he said of Putin.
Rice argued the war could have been avoided under a different U.S. policy.
He said he believes "100%" that the full-scale invasion would not have happened had Trump been in office in early 2022 rather than President Joe Biden.
He faulted Biden's January 2022 remark suggesting NATO might be divided over a "minor incursion." Biden later clarified that any Russian troop crossing would be treated as an invasion, but the comment drew sharp criticism in Kyiv at the time.
Rice also pointed to the withdrawal of U.S. trainers before the February 2022 invasion as a signal to Moscow, "that, hey, the door is yours."
The Pentagon ordered roughly 150 American personnel, including elements of the 10th Special Forces Group, out of Ukraine in mid-February 2022 as Russian forces massed on the border.
Rice said members of the group "wanted to stay and fight" but were pulled out, opening the door for him to volunteer in Kyiv as a private citizen.
Rice called the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., U.K., and Russia, "a terrible document" that failed to deliver real protection.
He said the U.S. and its partners must now provide concrete security guarantees to prevent a future invasion.
The memorandum committed the signatories to respect Ukraine's borders and refrain from using force, but did not obligate the U.S. or the U.K. to take military action.
Friday's exchange was the second this month, part of a long series of swaps that have remained among the few sustained channels of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv as broader cease-fire talks remain stalled.
"The security guarantees need to be real. We need to provide a security blanket for Ukraine so this never happens again," he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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