Europe Outraged as Trump Is Viewed To Be Surrendering to Putin on Ukraine

Russia reacted with delight and Europe with outrage Thursday to President Trump’s startling concessions to President Putin. As Mr. Trump talked on the phone with the Russian leader on Wednesday, his new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ruled out the idea of American soldiers enforcing an armistice between Russia and Ukraine and also dismissed eventual membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for Ukraine. He said Europe would have to take the lead in financing any peace settlement.“Basically, he is taking our bread and butter — we wanted to chainsaw the Western world into pieces, but he decided to cut through it himself,” a Russian state TV host, Yevgeny Popov, said Thursday night on Russia-1’s “60 Minutes.” Guest Sergey Luzyanin, a member of Russia’s security council, agreed, saying: “Trump is cutting apart the Western world. We’ll see how successful he’ll be with his saw.”As the ruble jumped 7 percent on news of the phone call, Russian officials reveled in their belief that Mr. Trump will try to end the 3-year-old war in a one-on-one, great-power summit with Mr. Putin — without Ukraine or Europe at the table. That would contrast with the Yalta Conference in February 1945, when Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill divided up post-war Europe.On Thursday, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters at Moscow: “As for Europe’s participation, there is no understanding yet of the format of a possible negotiation process, so it is premature to talk about it.”A former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, was blunter: “Frigid spinster Europe is mad with jealousy and rage,” Mr. Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, wrote on Telegram. “It shows its real role in the world. Europe’s time is over.”A former Trump national security advisor, John Bolton, told CNN Thursday that his former boss “effectively surrendered” to the Russian leader. “Mr. Putin couldn’t be happier. They’re drinking vodka straight from the bottle in the Kremlin. It was a big day for Moscow.”Mr. Trump on Thursday threw the Kremlin another sweetener, saying that Russia should be invited to rejoin what is now the G7, or Group of Seven industrialized nations. “I’d love to have them back,” he told reporters at the White House. “I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8.” Two years ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Putin on charges of illegal deportation of children to Russia from Ukraine. Last week, the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed economic and travel sanctions on the British ICC prosecutor in the case, Karim Khan. It is unlikely that Canada, host of the next G7 meeting, at Alberta in June, would allow Russia’s leader to attend. Canada is a signatory to the treaty establishing the ICC. Alberta is the center of Canada’s politically powerful Ukrainian diaspora.At the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday, Mr. Hegseth will get an earful of European and Ukrainian rage.“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” the European Union foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Thursday. “Any agreement without us will fail, because you need Europe and Ukraine to implement the agreement.”A former prime minister of Estonia, a Baltic nation long in the sites of Kremlin propagandists, she asked: “Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked.” Under the 1938 Munich Agreement, Germany, Italy, Britain, and France agreed to allow Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was not present for the negotiations over its dismemberment.On Thursday, President Zelensky told reporters on a stop in his trip to Munich: “We, as an independent country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us.” His foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, told France’s Le Monde newspaper: “Nothing can be discussed on Ukraine without Ukraine, or on Europe without Europe.”Some Americans wondered how Mr. Trump, who co-authored a best-selling book titled “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” could give away so much leverage — before talks start.“Why is the Trump administration giving Putin gifts – Ukrainian land and no NATO membership for Ukraine – before negotiations even begin?” a former American ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, posted on X as he traveled to Munich. “I’ve negotiated with the Russians. You never give up anything to them for free.”As criticism mounted during the day, Mr. Hegseth praised his boss as the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace.” He continued: “There is no betrayal. There is recognition that the world and the U.S. are investing in peace — peace through negotiations.”In Munich, the Trump team will encounter a solid wall of European pushback. The exceptions will be Hungary and Slovakia, countries that depend on cheap Russian gas.Within hours of the Trump-Putin telephone call, the European Commission, Britain, and six major European countries issued a joint statement from Brussels saying: “Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”The most outspoken Ukraine supporters are British — both left and right.“We must make sure that Ukraine is at the heart of this,” Prime Minister Starmer, a Laborite, told reporters in London Thursday. “It’s really important that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position, whether that’s in discussions or whether it’s continued fighting.” His defense secretary, John Healey, told Sky News: “It’s the Ukrainians that are doing the fighting. It’s for them to decide when to start talking and on what terms.”The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said Wednesday: “Ukraine now joining NATO is almost an essential part of this peace deal.” In the polls, Reform UK, a conservative party, is the most popular party in Britain today.A Tory member of parliament and former foreign secretary, James Cleverly, warned on X: “Giving the impression that invasion pays off is not a strong move. Regimes are watching closely. Let’s send the message that violence and aggression don’t win out. I stand with Ukraine.” The French defense minister, Sebastien Lecornu, warned against “peace through weakness.” Chancellor Scholz told Politico: “The next task is to ensure that there is no imposed peace.” A former Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, posted on X: “No NATO membership, no boots on the ground? Sounds like abandoning Ukraine.”European anger stems in part from Mr. Trump’s repeated belittling of support for Ukraine. Since Mr. Putin launched his full-bore attack on Ukraine, almost three years ago, Europe has allocated $132 billion in financial, humanitarian and military aid, according to figures due to be released Friday by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. This independent think tank totals American aid at 10 percent less: $119 billion. On Wednesday, Bloomberg Economics calculated that protecting Ukraine and expanding European militaries would cost the continent’s major powers an additional $3.1 trillion over the next decade. European governments’ spending on defense jumped 12 percent last year to $447 billion, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. U.S. defense spending was more than double: $968 billion.In the face of charges that Russians and America will try to decide Ukraine’s fate behind closed doors — and let Europe pay the bill — both sides Thursday sought to defuse suspicions.Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told Russian state TV Thursday: “One way or another, of course, Ukraine will participate in the negotiations.” He added: “There will be a bilateral Russian-American track of this dialog, and a track that will be related to Ukraine’s involvement.”For his part, Mr. Trump answered a reporter’s question about Ukraine participating in peace talks: “They’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people.”On Wednesday, he seemed more noncommittal. The president pursed his lips and paused after a reporter asked, “Do you see Ukraine as an equal participant?”“Mmm, that’s an interesting question,” he said. “I think they’ll have to make peace. People are being killed, it’s a bad war, and I think they’ll have to make peace.”Correction: Czechoslovakia was not present for the negotiations in 1938 that led to the Munich pact. An earlier version misstated the extent of their participation.

Europe Outraged as Trump Is Viewed To Be Surrendering to Putin on Ukraine

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