"President Trump is the best negotiator on the planet," and "if there is one person in the world who is able to bring peace, it's him." US Defense Secretary and Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has defined in this way the maneuver that the US President is carrying out to initiate peace negotiations in Ukraine. Donald Trump spoke yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly reached agreements without initially involving Ukraine, NATO, or the European Union.
"It's not a betrayal," he responded on Thursday when asked about this lack of collaboration just before starting his participation, precisely, in the NATO Defense Ministers' meeting. This statement has been endorsed or, at least, not attacked by the NATO Secretary-General himself. Mark Rutte, who wanted to emphasize that Trump called Zelensky after speaking with Putin.
"There is a clear convergence emerging. We all want peace in Ukraine sooner rather than later. We all want Ukraine to be in the best possible position when those conversations begin," Rutte pointed out before the Defense Ministers' meeting taking place this morning at NATO headquarters in Brussels, adding that the whole process "will involve Ukraine."
The idea that Ukraine must be fully present and involved in the process has been repeatedly emphasized by other relevant officials such as the UK Secretary of State for Defense, John Healey. However, the British official also added that "it is the Ukrainians who are fighting," and "they are the ones who must decide when to start talking and on what terms."
Rutte also stressed that the agreement must be "lasting" and not turn into a "Minsk 3.0". This is something that Hegseth already pointed out yesterday, and both refer to the agreements reached by Russia and Ukraine in the capital of Belarus, which failed in the two previous cases.
Just a few kilometers from the NATO headquarters and in the same city, the European Commission maintains a silence that was barely broken last night by a statement on the social network X from the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. "The independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine are unconditional. Our priority must now be to strengthen Ukraine and provide solid security guarantees. In any negotiation, Europe must play a central role," pointed out the successor of Josep Borrell, who also added a statement signed jointly with Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
But nothing more, no public statement from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and certainly nothing to erase the image that Europe has been and continues to be completely ignored in the conversations between Trump and Putin.