Nick Schifrin:
As we have been discussing for weeks, Amna, European officials are very worried that President Trump would make a deal with President Putin somehow carving up Ukraine or making a deal about the future of Ukraine without Ukraine in the room.
And that has been a consistent worry of European officials and Ukrainian officials I speak to. However, in the last couple days, you have had a few signs. European officials tell me that President Trump’s meeting with them on Wednesday led by Chancellor Merz was very positive and that President Trump was the one who agreed to some of the European principles for how to approach the end of the war in Ukraine.
That includes a cease-fire needs to come first, only Ukraine can decide land swaps, and that there will be no legal recognition of Russian occupation, and that Ukraine needs security guarantees. And that speaks to President Trump’s evolution on this. For years, he has been skeptical of NATO. And, earlier this year, he almost walked away from Ukraine, cutting off some military assistance.
But now he has praised NATO leaders for increasing their spending and is allowing more weapons to flow into Ukraine from Europe, so long as the Europeans are paying for them.
