News Analysis: Trump cedes to Russia on Ukraine, but the bigger victim may be NATO

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s siding with Russia in its war against Ukraine not only imperils the smaller former Soviet republic, but also may undermine eight decades of transatlantic security and force Europe to go it alone.

Trump’s new secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, made his first trip in that role to the headquarters of NATO in Brussels this week, and on Wednesday he delivered arguably the most stark message ever to that body: The United States will no longer serve as guarantor of European security.

The statement shatters the fundamental principle on which the organization was founded and that has sustained relative peace in much of the world since World War II. It holds that an attack against any single member is an attack against all, a tenet invoked only once: when European nations came to the assistance of the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Trump meanwhile was on the telephone to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agreeing that their two countries would “work closely” to end the devastating war started nearly three years ago when Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine.

The conflict has killed tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people. Most of the Russian dead are soldiers, while civilians make up a large part of Ukrainian death.

Trump said that after speaking for an hour and a half with Putin, they agreed to begin negotiations about Ukraine’s future.

Until now, the mantra of U.S. and European officials was “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected any proposal that treated his nation as an afterthought.

“We cannot accept, as an independent country, that any agreements [be made] without us,” Zelensky said Thursday. He said it was important to “not allow everything [to] go according to Putin’s plan.”

But so far that’s what seems to be happening. Trump administration officials said Ukraine cannot expect to regain all of its territory seized illegally by Russia and cannot expect membership in NATO, while it’s likely the U.S. would lift some of the numerous sanctions imposed on Moscow for its belligerent behavior. The concessions were a remarkable shift in U.S. policy.

Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Trump “is trying to end the war at any cost — not unlike Neville Chamberlain.” Daalder was alluding to Britain’s early World War II prime minister who was widely criticized for appeasing Hitler as the German fuhrer marched across Europe.

Europe was also incensed at being sidelined in the potential resolution of a conflict that most immediately affects its citizens.

“Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters at NATO headquarters, where the organization’s 32 defense ministers — including Hegseth — met for talks on Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Anna Baerbock also insisted Europe had to be included because “this is about European peace.” She added: “This is not how others do foreign policy, but this is now the reality. ... This is the way the Trump administration operates.”

In Moscow, Russian officials were celebrating what they saw as a major victory in winning Trump’s support over Ukraine and over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“The U.S. finally hurt Zelensky for real,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said. “This means that the formula ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine — a sacred cow for Zelensky, the European Union and the previous U.S. administration — no longer exists.”

And a headline in the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda stated: “Trump signed Zelensky’s death sentence.”

Trump, in a news conference at the White House on Thursday, reiterated his support for Russia’s demands and his inclination to deal directly with Moscow.

But by withdrawing itself as a defender of Europe in the event of an attack by Russia or other outside forces, the Trump administration, never an admirer of NATO, has potentially gutted it, Daalder, the former ambassador and now president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said in an interview Thursday.

“After 76 years, the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner,” he said. “Putin will be emboldened by the fact that the U.S. is withdrawing itself as a guarantor of European security — the goal of the Soviet Union and then Putin’s Russia since 1949.”

At Thursday’s news conference, Trump was asked whether he believed Putin wants peace.

“I trust him on this subject,” Trump said. “I think he would tell me if he didn’t.”

The comment was reminiscent of Trump’s expressions of confidence in Putin’s reassurances in 2017 that Russia did not attempt to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, despite evidence to the contrary.

Europe has been stepping up its own defenses for years. Under the Obama administration, NATO members pledged to increase their domestic defense spending by several percentage points.

Pulling back support for Europe also comes as the administration is beginning to make what promise to be drastic cutbacks on U.S. diplomatic presence at embassies and the virtual dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, a global provider of humanitarian aid. Together, all these steps are seen as a retrenching of U.S. influence globally.