Western dismay at the new U.S. position focused on Trump’s decision to rule out NATO membership for Ukraine, ban American troops from policing the peace, and reject Kyiv’s goal of retaking all the land Russia has seized since 2014.
One line dominated as officials digested Trump’s blueprint: Ukraine and its allies will not endorse any deal struck by Russia and the U.S. without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the negotiating table. For that matter, the Europeans said, they must be involved too. 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.
“It is clear that any deal behind our backs will not work. You need the Europeans, you need the Ukrainians,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO ministers. “Why are we giving them [Russia] everything they want even before the negotiations have started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
Special relations
Kallas is the most senior official in the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to have commented so far. A former Estonian prime minister, she is known as a Russia hawk and Trump skeptic. But even in Britain, which likes to boast of its “special relationship” with the U.S., there was shock and anger at the new president’s gambit.
“History has shown time and again that appeasement fails,” British lawmaker David Reed, who used to serve in the Royal Marines, told POLITICO in a statement. “This war must end on Ukraine’s terms — anything less would be a betrayal of a brave ally who was invaded without provocation, and a direct threat to Europe’s security.”
Even Keir Starmer, the U.K. prime minister who has worked hard to foster good relations with Trump, declined to endorse the detail of the American plan. “There can’t be negotiations around Ukraine without Ukraine being at the heart of it,” Starmer said.
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