The brand new Trump administration, nevertheless, has appeared to surrender a lot of its negotiating leverage over Russia unilaterally. Talking at NATO headquarters on Feb. 12, U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the U.S. wouldn’t settle for NATO membership for Ukraine or present peacekeeping troops, and warned the nation wouldn’t return to its pre-2014 borders when Moscow launched its preliminary assault.
On Wednesday, European officers distanced themselves from Trump’s statements, with German Protection Minister Boris Pistorius saying that “the Individuals made a mistake” and Sweden’s Overseas Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard insisting that Europe should not fall into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s entice.
Trump’s assault towards Zelenskyy come after U.S. and Russian officers met for talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, marking the primary high-level negotiations between the 2 sides since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022. Ukraine was not invited to take part within the talks.
Each Washington and Moscow introduced {that a} face-to-face assembly between Trump and Putin might happen earlier than the tip of February.
