The people Donald Trump appoints to key positions on his leadership team could reveal his intentions for Ukraine, a former senior White House official told us.

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticized US aid to Ukraine and claimed he would quickly end Russia’s war in the country – without saying how or ruling out a peace deal based on land ceding by kyiv .

Although the president-elect’s intentions remain unclear, Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser under Barack Obama, highlighted what he believes could be key signals.

Talk to The world with Yalda Hakimhe said: “The big question hanging over all of this…is the United States going to continue to support Ukraine?

“Will the United States continue to be present, particularly in the frontline NATO member states in the east, or not?

“And the nominations will be a signal.

“Are we going to have people like Mike Pompeo or Marco Rubio, who are more conventional Republicans who support Ukraine, or are we going to have MAGA people like Ric Grenell or Kash Patel, people who support Trump’s comments on a complete withdrawal from NATO?

The United States, the “hub” of NATO

Mr Trump has previously said he would “encourage” Russia to invade any country he believes is not paying enough for NATO and there are even fears he could pull the United States out of the alliance, which includes UK and European countries.

Although Mr. Rhodes believes he is right about the need for allies to contribute more to the alliance – adding that he is not the first to raise this point – he said the United States is the linchpin of the group defense of the group.

“The central issue here is that, yes, European countries need to spend more on defense, but the United States is the hub of the alliance,” he added.

“We have capabilities that other allies don’t have. We have a logistical capability. We train in a capability that other countries don’t have.”

“So if some European countries spend more, but the United States withdraws from NATO or stops supporting Ukraine, it won’t work.”