President Donald Trump’s phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday has deeply rattled Kyiv and its European partners, triggering long-held fears that Ukraine could be excluded from the peace talks determining its own future and security - as well as that of the rest of the continent.
Trump, who spoke to Putin on Wednesday and then phoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to inform him of the call, said that he and his Russian counterpart will soon try to meet in Saudi Arabia without the Ukrainian leader.
The announcement of the Trump-Putin call, which made no mention of Europe, and a pending meeting between the two men also play into European leaders’ fears that their defence interests will fall by the wayside if Trump has direct talks with Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday it was “premature” to discuss a role for Europe in any talks.
Zelensky has long insisted that talks to end the war must include Ukraine, and European leaders have said they need to include Europe. Zelensky has also pushed for Ukraine to be granted either Nato membership or equivalent security guarantees.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is unrealistic, that Nato membership should not be on the table and that US troops in Ukraine would not be part of any security guarantee.
In Ukraine and Europe, such declarations were widely seen as weakening Ukraine’s stance at the bargaining table before talks even began by revealing publicly what Ukraine is expected to give up without clarifying what - if anything - Russia might be forced to concede.
Nato membership was already a distant prospect, rebuffed by the United States and others, and Europeans have quietly acknowledged that Ukraine would probably have to make territorial concessions.
Even as Hegseth maintained the US commitment to Nato, European officials were caught off guard by the Trump-Putin call and by its timing right after Hegseth’s blunt messages on Ukrainian concessions.
Zelensky rushed to assuage concerns that Ukraine was being sidelined, writing on X that his conversation with Trump was “long” and “detailed”.
“I appreciate his genuine interest in our shared opportunities and how we can bring about real peace together.” he wrote. “We discussed many aspects - diplomatic, military, and economic - and President Trump informed me about what Putin told him. We believe that America’s strength, together with Ukraine and all our partners, is enough to push Russia to peace.”
Privately, however, some Ukrainians were horrified by the content of the call, with one military officer describing the United States as an unreliable partner and saying the call was “the greatest disappointment from the actions of the United States”.
“Your politicians have lost their dignity,” the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly. “Ukraine’s betrayal after Afghanistan will have catastrophic consequences for America’s perception in the world.”
The Ukrainians are “officially trying to react with a brave and constructive face, but it’s obvious that what they were trying to avoid is just beginning to happen,” said one Western diplomat, who like several others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss a sensitive topic. “[The] question is can it be reframed in a better way?”
Your politicians have lost their dignity. Ukraine’s betrayal after Afghanistan will have catastrophic consequences for America’s perception in the world
— Ukraine military officer
The continent’s leaders scrambled overnight to insist there should be no negotiations without Ukraine, nor without Europeans. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Trump-Putin call came out of the blue.
“This is the way the Trump administration operates… This is not how others do foreign policy, but this is now the reality,” she told German public radio. Any negotiations should not “go over the heads of the Ukrainians”, she added. “This is about European peace. That’s why we Europeans must be involved.”
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that while the Trump administration had already shared some of its positions in recent months, this was “a real moment of political truth”. He warned that “peace through weakness” could have “dramatic” security implications in the region.
Ahead of the call and then afterward in the readout, Putin has talked about the need to deal with the “roots” of the conflict. European officials believe he wants to renegotiate the continent’s security landscape.
“All we need is peace. A JUST PEACE,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. “Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER.”
Foreign ministers and officials from several European countries who met in Paris on Wednesday night, including France, Germany and Britain, issued a statement reiterating support for Ukraine.
“We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies,” it said. “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations. Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees.”
British Defence Secretary John Healey said, “Let’s not forget, Russia remains a threat well beyond Ukraine.”
The negotiations that ended Russia’s first incursion into Ukraine in 2014 resulted in an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, that was never fully implemented and torn up by Russia ahead of its 2022 invasion.
Mykola Bilieskov, a Ukrainian political analyst at a think tank linked to the presidential office, said he found it “frightening” that Trump’s team appears to be trying “to do everything in terms of settlement at [the] price of Ukraine, its security, well-being and all else.”
Despite talk of concessions by Russia, “we only now understand what Ukraine might be asked to sacrifice”.
“Russia would pocket everything and then violate all promises,” he said, adding that such a plan would not be accepted by the general public in Ukraine. “I just can’t understand that people want to repeat the same mistake - placating [Russia] at our cost… It didn’t work numerous times. Why will it work this time? Triumph of strategic shortsightedness at [the] price of Ukraine. Terrible.”
Others expressed cautious optimism that the process is only just beginning and still leaves room for Ukrainian involvement.
“Trump had to call someone first,” Ukrainian lawmaker Victoria Gryb said. “The situation is not bright, but I just hope that Ukraine’s interests will be respected.” She added that it was still too early to assess potential outcomes ahead of talks expected to begin Friday.
Another lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, said that the Trump administration’s plans to meet Zelensky in Munich suggest “we are still in the game and still are [a] participant to the process rather than observer”.
Still, parliament is worried by Trump’s apparent willingness to give away potential bargaining chips, such as Nato membership and security guarantees, “without receipt of anything in exchange”.
“We believe that Trump has very easily stepped back from things that we together could have used in potential negotiations with Russia,” the lawmaker said.
On the front line, similar fears rippled through troops who have spent years defending Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
“The only thing that can stop Putin, the only thing, is if he simply exhausts himself,” said one company commander fighting near the besieged eastern city of Pokrovsk.
“If Trump manages to achieve that, then I believe some kind of ceasefire might be possible. But I do not believe in the end of the war as long as Russia exists in the form in which it seeks to destroy us.”
The commander said he still sees room for Trump to grow frustrated with Putin, who could humiliate him. But he insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty will not depend solely on Trump’s vision of the country’s future.
“Whether the US and Trump help us or not, I understand that we must continue fighting,” he added. “Because for us, this is a question of survival.”
Serhiy Morgunov and Anastacia Galouchka in Kyiv and Kate Brady in Berlin contributed to this report
-Washington Post