Trump's Concessions Shake Talks

Donald Trump’s administration has ended the Russian president’s international isolation, shattered Western unity on the conflict and cast doubt on how far the US would go to defend Europe, signaling a stunning shift toward Putin and away from America’s traditional allies.

With a flurry of conflicting statements in their first forays into Europe, Trump aides also fueled concerns that the US president will embrace just about any deal with Putin — even if it’s a bad one for Ukraine and a continent whose borders are again threatened by Russian expansionism.

Suggestions that the US will exclude its European friends from peace talks on Ukraine — despite demanding they provide security guarantees and troops as part of any deal to end the war — also triggered alarm in capitals on the continent, with France calling key leaders to an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday.

Trump has also sparked fears that Ukraine itself would not be part of talks that are critical to its survival as a nation after its sovereign territory was invaded by a totalitarian neighbor bringing war crimes, civilian carnage and destruction on its people.

The president on Sunday raised the prospect of a meeting with Putin “very soon.” He told reporters in Florida: “We’re moving along. We’re trying to get a peace with Russia, Ukraine, and we’re working very hard on it.”

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would “never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine,” Trump gave a vague assurance that he would be “involved.”