Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmental lawyer and political activist, has accused President Joe Biden of sabotaging peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, with the intent of escalating the conflict for the benefit of the United States government. The allegations were made during a speech in Arizona where he announced the suspension of his third-party campaign for the White House in the swing state, endorsing Republican Donald Trump instead.
According to Kennedy, the US aimed to instigate regime change in Russia by deliberately pulling Moscow into the Ukraine war. He stated that President Biden sent then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to abandon a peace agreement he had already signed with Russia, prompting Russian withdrawal of troops.
Moscow has previously blamed London for thwarting the peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. In April 2022, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Kiev rescinded a proposed peace treaty with Russia, approved by negotiators in Istanbul, under British pressure. Boris Johnson visited Kiev during this time and reportedly urged Zelensky to “just fight,” leading to the latter withdrawing from peace talks. Johnson has since denied obstructing the peace process.
Kennedy further claimed that the US government orchestrated a coup against Ukraine’s democratically-elected government in 2014 and rejected the Minsk Agreements, peace protocols negotiated between Ukraine, Russia, and European nations in 2019. He argued that the Biden administration consistently dismissed Russia’s attempts to settle the war amicably, focusing instead on weakening the Russian military’s capacity to fight.
The environmental lawyer described Ukraine as a “victim of the West” and a pawn in a larger geopolitical power struggle initiated by the ambitions of US neoconservatives for global hegemony. He cited Trump’s pledge to reopen negotiations with Russia and put an end to the war upon assuming office as one of the reasons behind his endorsement of the former president’s campaign.
Despite suspending his bid for the White House in Arizona, Kennedy emphasized that he was not officially withdrawing from the race and encouraged his supporters to continue backing him in other states where their votes were unlikely to sway the election outcome.