On Tuesday, a senior U.S. official had tipped off the U.K. that a big intervention was coming, but did not reveal what it was, according to two people familiar with the matter. Like some others who spoke for this article, they declined to be identified so they could discuss delicate issues.
“The war is happening here in Europe, so the terms of the cease-fire will affect us immediately,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told POLITICO. “Europe cannot be a mere spectator.”
Except as far as Trump and Putin are concerned, it really can.
That matters to European nations, including the U.K., which have been sending cash and arms for Ukraine’s defense for the past three years, sucked up the higher cost of energy and have taken in millions of refugees. (According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, European governments have committed €241 billion in aid for Ukraine compared with €119 billion by the U.S. since 2022).
And it matters, analysts say, because Europe must now get used to a new world without hope of U.S. protection from Putin’s malign interest. “As the American security blanket is pulled away, the question once again is not whether Russia will push further, but where and when,” said Keir Giles, from the Chatham House think tank in London.
Spare a thought for British Defence Secretary John Healey. He only found out about Trump’s dramatic gambit halfway through a press conference at NATO HQ in Brussels on Wednesday.
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