Donald Trump shocks Selenskyj and European partner on the phone

Within 24 hours, US President Donald Trump wanted to end Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. So he originally announced it – as is well known, the project did not work. On the contrary: the US Ukraine policy now seems to go in a direction that had always been feared from a Ukrainian and European perspective. According to media reports, the United States wants to keep out of the talks in the future and there will also be no stricter sanctions against Russia. It looks as if the Europeans will be on their own together with Ukraine in the future. What this means for the war in Ukraine cannot be foreseen.

A turning point in the war was to be the phone call between Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Previously, negotiation delegations in Istanbul had met for direct conversations. The result is nothing in all of this: no ceasefire land without preconditions, no common line of the United States with the European allies. Instead, Trump is said to have informed in a telephone switch after talking to the Russian President Selenskyj and the Europeans that Ukraine and Russia should find a negotiation and peace solution alone in the future. Trump also didn’t want to know anything about joint sanctions and tightened pressure on Russia. Instead, he praises Russia as an “important trade and business partner”.

In the media reports there is talk of “confused silence” and “bare horror” among the Europeans. The official reactions were correspondingly flattering. Chancellor Merz emphasized almost defiantly on the platform X in the evening: “Europe will increase the pressure on Moscow through sanctions”. In truth, however, it was all about damage limitation – in different fields.

“If we lose Trump as a partner, much more is at stake than Ukraine-namely the common NATO,” warned an EU diplomat, for example, as the Reuters news agency reports. Europeans also have to continue to support Ukraine in their defense fight against Russia – if necessary without the United States. “But that is very difficult at the moment,” emphasized another EU diplomat and referred to the previous enormous arms deliveries of the superpower. At least on Monday, one was able to ward off that an increasingly disinterested US government cuts the deliveries of reconnaissance and intelligence data for Ukraine, you comfort yourself in European capitals.

It should be a weak consolation. Because strictly speaking, the “New York Times” quotes an anonymous source, the following situation has now occurred: Putin has achieved exactly what he wanted. The United States looks away from further sanctions and see Russia more as a trading partner. Second, Trump’s U -turn reveals deep cracks in the western alliance and could mean weakening NATO – as long as Trump stays with his latest line. That is not sure.