Donald Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the new US president’s first big step towards diplomacy over a war he has promised to end.
In a post on his social media platform, Mr Trump said he and Mr Putin had “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskiy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now”.
Mr Zelenskiy’s office subsequently said Mr Trump and the Ukraine president had spoken by phone for about an hour.
The Kremlin said Mr Putin and Mr Trump had agreed to meet, and Mr Putin had invited Mr Trump to visit Moscow.
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Mr Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without saying how he would accomplish this.
His intervention came after US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Ukraine should not expect to regain all occupied territory or secure Nato membership in any deal to end its war with Russia. He also ruled out sending US troops to act as peacekeepers in the country.
Mr Hegseth dealt a heavy blow to Ukraine’s hopes with his comments at Nato headquarters in Brussels, where he also told European states that they must now “lead from the front” on continental security as Washington focuses on averting war with China.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Mr Hegseth told officials from more than 40 countries that provide Kyiv with weapons.
“The US does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” he said, noting that “robust” security guarantees needed to uphold a peace deal “should not be provided through Nato membership, but must instead be backed by capable European and non-European troops”.
“To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” Mr Hegseth added.
Mr Zelenskiy has repeatedly warned that only Nato membership and US security guarantees would ensure that Russia did not break any peace deal and launch a new invasion of his country; the pledges and military power of European states do not intimidate the Kremlin, he says.
Mr Hegseth distanced himself further from any possible direct future US military involvement in Ukraine by insisting that any peacekeeping force that included troops from Nato states must not operate under the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence clause.
The US “remains committed to the Nato alliance and to the defence partnership with Europe, full stop, but the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency”, he said.
“Stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” he added. “The US is prioritising deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognising the reality of scarcity, and making the resourcing trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. As the United States shifts its attention to these threats, European allies must lead from the front.”
Mr Hegseth did not state whether the US would continue to supply vital weapons to Kyiv or help to arm any future peacekeeping force, but did say that “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine”.
His comments will boost Russia’s hopes of achieving at least some of the main goals of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its earlier occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in 2014, namely permanent control of a large swathe of its pro-western neighbour and an end to its bid to join Nato.
“The Pentagon chief’s statements could be a cold shower for Zelenskiy. His assessments of the situation on the battlefield, including the impossibility of returning to the 2014 borders ... and the ghostly prospects of Ukraine’s accession to Nato, are quite realistic,” said Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament. “The proclaimed priorities on pursuing a sustainable peace in the Ukrainian conflict inspire cautious ... optimism.
There was no immediate reaction to Mr Hegseth’s remarks from Ukrainian officials. Mr Zelenskiy is expected to meet senior US officials this week, and says he is open to Mr Trump’s demand that Ukraine trade hundreds of billions of euro in mineral resources for US support. − Additional reporting: Reuters
