Sidelined Europe Seeks Ukraine Role After Trump-Putin Call
Pete Hegseth, left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels, on Feb. 13.
Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP/Getty ImagesEuropean leaders blindsided by Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin insisted they shouldn’t be sidelined after the US president said he’d agreed to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine with his Russian counterpart.
In talking to Putin, Trump swept aside long-standing US policy that nothing should be decided about Ukraine without Kyiv at the table, while cutting out allies with an existential stake in the resolution of a conflict raging on their borders. Many European NATO partners now fear the more conciliatory American stance amounts to a giveaway to the Russian leader.