Abdelrahman
The recent Trump administration has seemingly relinquished a significant portion of its negotiating power regarding Russia on its own accord. During remarks at NATO headquarters on February 12, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the U.S. would not support NATO membership for Ukraine or commit peacekeeping forces, emphasizing that the nation would not revert to its territorial boundaries prior to 2014, the year Moscow initiated its aggressive actions.
On Wednesday, European leaders sought to clarify their stance regarding Trump’s comments. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius remarked that “the Americans made a mistake,” while Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard stressed the necessity for Europe to avoid falling into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traps.
Trump’s criticism of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy followed a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. This marked the first high-level discussions between the two nations since the onset of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Notably, Ukraine was not invited to the negotiation table.
Both Washington and Moscow confirmed that a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin might occur before the end of February.
