Trump has calls with Putin to start conversations to end Ukraine War: Live Updates

“We will only end this devastating war and establish a sustainable peace by linking allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,” he said.

Hours later, Mr. Trump on social media that he had one Long phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and they agreed to “start the negotiations right away” to end the war.

Mr. Hegeth at the NATO headquarters in Brussels said Mr. Trump expected Europe to bear more financial and military responsibility for Ukraine’s defense. He is scheduled to attend a meeting with NATO defense ministers there Thursday.

Europe, he said, must take more responsibility for his conventional defense and spend more money on its armed forces, up to 5 percent of national production as the United States deals with its own security risks and China’s challenge.

Mr. Trump, he added, does not support Ukraine’s membership of NATO as part of a realistic peace plan.

After a solution, “a sustainable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war does not begin again,” but that would be the responsibility, he said, of European and non-European troops in a “non-nato mission” unprotected of NATO’s Article five obligation to collective defense.

No US troops will be deployed to Ukraine, he said, and Europe should give “the overwhelming proportion of future mortals and not -so help with Ukraine.”

European and alliance leaders have eagerly waited to hear what Mr. Trump’s goal of a Ukraine settlement had to be. Mr. Hegeth’s comments at the opening of a meeting in Ukraine Defense Contact Group – more than 50 nations, including all 32 NATO Member States – do not come as a big surprise.

But they mark a major change from former President Bid’s policy that it was up to Ukraine to decide whether to admit in exchange for peace – which so far has meant to preserve Ukrainian sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders and support Kiev in its efforts to drive Russian forces out of all Ukrainian territory before the war.

Mr. Trump said this week he would trade with continued help with Ukraine for approx. $ 500 billion in Ukrainian rare earth soil minerals used in high -tech production. He has sent Scott Bessent, the new Ministry of Finance, to make the administration’s first high -level visit in Kiev, because Mr. Trump wrote on social media, “This war must and will end soon.”

NATO has promised that Ukraine will one day join NATO, but without specifying a date. Mr. Hegeth’s comments seem to put this date very far into the unpredictable future if it arrives at all.

His remarks will create political difficulties for President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine and will probably please Mr. Putin, who seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, launched an all-out invasion in 2022. Russia now occupies approx. 20 percent of Ukraine.

Mr. Putin has demanded that Russia keep its occupied territories, that Ukraine does not join NATO, its military capacity is limited and that the NATO extension should stop. He has said he is willing to participate in negotiations on a solution with Ukraine, but only on his terms.

To help bring Mr. Putin to the negotiating table urged Mr. Hegeth lower energy prices, “combined with more efficient enforcement of energy sanctions.”

“The real conversation has started,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO -assisting secretary general. After quiet tips from Trump officials, Hrsseth has “now presented the American question and the conditions are clear,” Mr. Grand. “Now Europeans have to respond.”

“Either the Europeans say,” Oh my God, we cannot do this without you Americans, “and add to the Trump perception that they are useless and security exempts,” he said, “or more likely,” we. ” Re ready to explore this and mobilize troops and resources, but this is our conditions to do so. ” ‘

Then there may be a serious conversation about the solidity of any ceasefire, about a peacekeeping force, command and control, air coverage and worst-case scenarios whose Russia tests peacekeepers, Mr. Grand.

Mr. Hegeth did not ask American commitment to NATO, as President Trump has sometimes done in the past.

The United States “remains obliged to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe, full stop, but the United States will no longer tolerate an unbalanced relationship that encourages addiction,” Mr. Hegeth.

So Europe has to step up to take responsibility for his own conventional defense, he said, suggesting that the American nuclear umbrella, which helps protect NATO and Europe, would remain in place.

He urged Europeans to retain their obligations on military spending and increase them. “We challenge your countries and your citizens to double and resume not only to Ukraine’s immediate security needs, but to Europe’s long-term defense and deterrence goals,” he said.

“We hear you,” said John Healey, Britain’s Defense Secretary, in response to Mr. Hegeth’s remarks before the meeting was closed to the media.

In a news conference after the meeting, Mr. Healey on shared targets with the United States, including a sustainable peace in Ukraine with security guarantees and increased European military spending and responsibilities for both Ukraine and for its own defense.

On the question of Mr. Trump had now broken the western entity in Ukraine, Mr. HEELEY DON’T, but repeated these shared goals, emphasized US commitment to NATO, and refused to exclude Ukraine one day.

“It’s a process that will take some time,” he said. But so far he said, “The duty of nations around this table is to ensure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position that goes into any conversation in the future.”

As for Europe taking responsibility for most of the help to Ukraine, he noted that Europe is already providing more help in everything than the United States. “We increase support for Ukraine,” Mr. Healey. “We want to do more. We do it with the Americans. “