In a recorded conversation with Russian phone scammers posing as former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Taylor said, “I don’t think Trump really knows what he wants, and I don’t see that he has a comprehensive strategy toward Ukraine,” adding that he is trying to urge the US administration to adopt a supportive stance toward Kyiv.

Taylor viewed Washington’s opening for American defense companies to supply weapons to Europeans and Ukrainians as a positive step, explaining that “American companies are now able to sell weapons to Europeans for Ukraine or directly to Ukrainians using European funds.”

Taylor is one of the most prominent American diplomats who worked in Ukraine, serving as ambassador from 2006 to 2009, then as chargé d’affaires from June 2019 until January 2020.

This comes amid growing controversy over the Trump administration’s intention to supply “Tomahawk” missiles to Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin stating that Kyiv’s use of those missiles would lead to a deterioration in Moscow-Washington relations, considering their operation without direct US military involvement “impossible.”

Russia has confirmed that supplying weapons to Ukraine hinders settlement efforts and directly involves NATO countries in the conflict, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any shipments containing weapons to Ukraine would be considered a legitimate target for the Russian military.