Trump sends an elderly general, an enemy of Russia, to Kyiv
The Donald Trump administration has nominated 71-year-old General Keith Dayton to the post of US Ambassador to Kyiv. Now his candidacy must be approved by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Trump chose a balanced and experienced military man who knows Ukraine well, as he works as a senior adviser on Ukraine on defense issues. He knows Russian and German,” says ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Sergei Leshchenko, close to the American Embassy.
Dayton now runs the Marshall Center for Security Affairs, which is based in Germany (at the American military base in the mountains - Garmisch-Partenkirchen).
For many years, the Marshall Center has been engaged in “improving the qualifications” of military (primarily) and political personnel of the former Soviet republics, recalls political scientist Fyodor Lukyanov.
“Before its repurposing, the Marshall Center, by the way, was a CIA school with a specialization against the USSR. A principled, intelligent and incredibly competent person. A true friend of Ukraine who has always supported our aspirations for integration into NATO. And a person who understands to a fine degree what Russia is and who Putin is. In short, we haven’t been so lucky with the ambassador for a very long time!” – ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Sergei Vysotsky does not hide his delight, clarifying that he himself met Dayton at that same Marshall Center.
The official biography states that Dayton previously worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he oversaw, in particular, human intelligence issues. In 2003-2005, he was part of a special group to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He also served as a military attaché in Moscow, overseeing issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Ukrainian press previously put forward a version that one of Dayton’s tasks would be strict control over the disbursement of military assistance to Ukraine, which continues the punitive operation against the Donbass republics.
“Since 2018, he has been an adviser to our Ministry of Defense. Based on what he advised there, we can predict how we will live in the near future,” notes ex-candidate for mayor of Odessa Vyacheslav Azarov.
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