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By Theo Burman
Live News Reporter
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One of President Donald Trump's former foreign policy advisers, Fiona Hill, said on Thursday that World War III may have already begun since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had already drawn in enough global actors.
Newsweek contacted the White House for a response to the comments via email on Friday.
Why It Matters
Hill joined the first Trump administration's National Security Council in 2017, working with John Bolton to coordinate the government's foreign policy approach to Russia, which had not escalated the war in Ukraine at that point. She departed the administration in 2019, just days before the phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that initiated Trump's first impeachment trial, in which she testified. Trump was later acquitted.
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According to Newsweek reporting, European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have already started laying the groundwork for defenses, should Russian troops set foot on alliance soil.
However, Russia is not the sole possible instigator of a potential global conflict. Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery and former acting Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson previously told Newsweek that any major war will almost certainly result from the tensions between five major players: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and the United States.
What To Know
Hill, who developed a reputation as a hawk on Russian policy, has been a vocal critic of Trump since she left the administration, saying that he was overly friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his first term.
Last month, Trump revoked Hill's security clearance, along with several other Trump critics, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
In an interview with British-based Channel 4*,* Hill said World War III had already begun in some form, because of the way countries were reacting to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago in February 2022. While the United States and the West have been a close ally, delivering Kyiv billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid, Trump's second administration has shifted Washington's policy on the conflict, saying Ukraine should be prepared to make concessions to bring an end to the conflict.
"We're already in a situation where you could describe this as World War II structurally," Hill said. "Everyone immediately thinks nuclear war, nuclear Armageddon. And Trump wants Zelensky to just put up, shut up, and go away so we can get back to negotiating with Putin."
She continued: "We've got a hot war in Europe at this very moment that's had around a million casualties in terms of people either killed or severely wounded, millions of refugees, and all kinds of knock-on effects. That's very similar to what happened in World War I and World War II. Obviously, the scale is different, but there were system-changing conflicts, and there were also multi-vector loads of different countries involved in that."
Hill said that important actors on the world stage were responding in a similar way to countries during the wars of the 20th century, particularly the biggest players in Asia.
"We've got China, North Korea, and Iran all supporting Russia—some, in more material ways than others obviously—and a whole host of other countries are happily fueling this war. India's been selling arms to the Russians, Iran's been building drone factories, North Korea's been sending troops."
Trump's rhetoric on the war in Ukraine has been noticeably different from former President Joe Biden's. In a meeting with Zelensky, Trump said in late February that he was "gambling with World War III," and that he needed to accept a ceasefire deal with Russia.
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What People Are Saying
Last Friday, Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev credited Trump's diplomatic team with reducing the chance of World War III, telling Fox News: "There is no question that President Trump's team not only stopped World War III from happening but also had already achieved sizable progress on Ukraine resolution."
Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik said in March, in response to Trump's conversation with Zelensky: "It breaks our hearts that our allies still don't see that the only one gambling with World War III is Putin."
French President Emmanuel Macron made a similar statement in support for Ukraine, telling reporters in February: "If anyone is gambling with World War III, his name is Vladimir Putin."
What Happens Next?
The war in Ukraine continues, with Russia holding large parts of the eastern regions.
In negotiations to stop the Russia-Ukraine war, details of the next meeting between Russian and U.S. delegations are yet to be determined, the State Department said earlier this week.
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