It appears they're going to happen . . . maybe . . .
BRUSSELS — It was the moment Europeans and Ukrainians have been dreading for months, if not years.
Yet when it finally came, on a wintry afternoon as Kyiv froze, the suddenness and scale of Donald Trump’s peace plan still left Ukraine’s allies in shock.
The United States has effectively called time on its support for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, with Trump announcing immediate negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up hope of taking back all the land Russia has seized.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the first to divulge America’s position at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Hegseth told his counterparts gathered in the Belgian capital that Zelenskyy had no chance of achieving his goal of kicking Russian forces out of Crimea and the east of the country and returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Hegseth said.
He then warned that America will be pulling back from its commitments to European security, renouncing the historic role it has played since the end of World War II, and set out a stark vision in which European governments will bear primary responsibility for their own defense — as well as for that of Ukraine.
Soon after, Trump extinguished any hope the cold new reality could be avoided. “I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” the U.S. president said in a post on social media.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation … Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”
BRUSSELS — It was the moment Europeans and Ukrainians have been dreading for months, if not years.
Yet when it finally came, on a wintry afternoon as Kyiv froze, the suddenness and scale of Donald Trump’s peace plan still left Ukraine’s allies in shock.
The United States has effectively called time on its support for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, with Trump announcing immediate negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up hope of taking back all the land Russia has seized.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the first to divulge America’s position at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Hegseth told his counterparts gathered in the Belgian capital that Zelenskyy had no chance of achieving his goal of kicking Russian forces out of Crimea and the east of the country and returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Hegseth said.
He then warned that America will be pulling back from its commitments to European security, renouncing the historic role it has played since the end of World War II, and set out a stark vision in which European governments will bear primary responsibility for their own defense — as well as for that of Ukraine.
Soon after, Trump extinguished any hope the cold new reality could be avoided. “I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” the U.S. president said in a post on social media.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation … Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”
