US President Donald Trump has promised a quick end to the war in Ukraine, but with the start of talks, the author of the "art of the deal" may have already complicated his task by sacrificing US influence in the world.
Trump, who separately discussed the war on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told U.S. officials to begin talks to end the nearly three-year-old war.
"We're going to do something. We're going to meet in Munich, as you know, and we're going to have a couple of other meetings. I'm going to talk to President Putin mostly on the phone. And ultimately we expect to meet. In fact, we expect him to come here and I'm going to go there to Saudi Arabia," Trump said.
The call between Trump and Putin came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine's military allies in Brussels that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders was unrealistic and that the US does not see Kiev's NATO membership as part of a solution.
"I know our new Secretary of Defense, who is excellent, made a statement saying that he thinks it's unlikely or impractical. I think that's probably true. I think long before President Putin. They said they couldn't allow this for many, many years. For NATO and I'm okay with Ukraine not being a part of it," Trump said.
This stance by the world's most powerful man has been seen as a surrender to Vladimir Putin. The first to react was former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, saying that Trump is helping Putin.
According to him, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dealt a serious blow to the hopes of the Ukrainians, writes A2 CNN.
Meanwhile, European foreign ministers insisted on Europe's participation in peace negotiations for Ukraine.
(A2 Televizion)
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