US officials are bound for Europe for top-level talks on Ukraine

Trump meets with Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, last September

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said yesterday [Macau time] that top administration officials will meet with European officials this week about how to end the war in Ukraine, nearly three years after Russia launched an all-out invasion.

Less than a day earlier, the New York Post reported that Trump had a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss steps toward a negotiated solution. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump declined to discuss his reported phone conversation with Putin.

“I don’t want to do that. We’re trying to end that war. It’s a war that would have never happened if I were president, it would have never happened, but we’re making progress. But I can’t tell you,” he said.

Asked to clarify whether his conversations with Putin took place before he took office or after, Trump said, “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it. And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It’s going to end.”

There was no immediate confirmation of the call by the Kremlin.

Waltz: Europe needs to take bigger role

In a television interview, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said the Russian economy is not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. Waltz also underscored that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine. He said European allies will also need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine going forward.

“We need to recoup those costs and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their natural resources and their oil and gas and also buying ours,” Waltz said in an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Those conversations are going to happen this week. And I think an underlying principle here is that the Europeans have to own this conflict going forward. President Trump is going to end it. And then in terms of security guarantees, that is squarely going to be with the Europeans.’’

Vice President JD Vance will be in Paris today [Macau time] for an artificial intelligence summit that’s gathering government officials and will head later in the week to the Munich Security Conference, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lead the battle-weary country’s delegation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will also be in Munich.

On Wednesday, Hegseth will join the main international forum for drumming up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. He’s set to participate in a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels the following day.

Kyiv under pressure

Putin is closer than ever to achieving his objectives in battle-weary Ukraine, with little incentive to come to the negotiating table, no matter how much Trump might cajole or threaten him, according to Russian and Western experts interviewed by The Associated Press.

Putin has previously said Trump was “clever and pragmatic,” and even parroted his false claims of having won the 2020 election. Trump’s opening gambit was to call Putin “smart” and to threaten Russia with tariffs and oil price cuts, which the Kremlin brushed off.

Trump boasted during the presidential election campaign that he could end the war in 24 hours, which later became six months. He’s indicated the U.S. is talking to Russia about Ukraine without Kyiv’s input, saying his administration already had “very serious” discussions.

That would run counter to the Biden administration’s position that echoed Zelenskyy’s call of “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” The Ukrainian leader has suggested any peace deal reached without Kyiv’s input would send the dangerous signal that adventurism pays to authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran.

Meanwhile, Trump has hinted he and Putin could soon take “significant” action toward ending the war, in which Russia is suffering heavy casualties daily while its economy endures stiff Western sanctions, inflation and a serious labor shortage. But the economy has not collapsed, and because Putin has unleashed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, he faces no domestic pressure to end the war.

Ukraine hopes to make its case in Munich

Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser who will attend the Munich security conference, has told AP the Ukrainian delegation will use its platform to present Kyiv’s position on ending the war. He said Kyiv hopes to discuss what security guarantees could be put in place to prevent repeated aggression by Russia.

The Munich summit comes at a pivotal moment for Ukraine, which is striving to establish a relationship with the new U.S. administration, a key partner during its yearslong war against Russia. MDT/AP