Trump cuts Eastern Europe defenсe programs, helping Putin destroy Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has wasted no time in warning that he’d attack foreign troops stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace deal he has no intention of signing, while Donald Trump continues to undermine Europe’s defences.
Speaking in Vladivostok, Putin - who claims Ukraine’s intent to join NATO is the reason his forces invaded - said: “If some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction.”
His words came less than 24 hours after French President Emmanuel Macron announced there were now 26 countries in the “coalition of the willing,” which includes the UK, who were prepared to deploy forces to Ukraine.
But, critically, they would only be there as part of a reassurance force to prevent Russia from agreeing to a peace deal, only to then rearm and reinvade. There is no European and British plan to send forces into Ukraine before a full-fledged peace deal has been completed.
No peace deal is on the table. But Europe is trying to build a new order, outside the chaos caused by Trump. Its every move, though, is hindered by the Oval Office.
Russia has so far refused to negotiate even a ceasefire with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming (among other things) that he lacks political legitimacy. The truth is he was elected by a landslide in democratic elections and is now head of a government under martial law.
Trump has repeatedly signaled that he is frustrated by the Kremlin’s rejection of real peace efforts, yet he gave Putin, who has been indicted as a war criminal, a fly-past and red carpet treatment at a recent summit in Alaska.
He may have imposed minor tighter economic sanctions against Russia during this administration, but Ukraine has seen US military aid slashed to zero and faces a continuous threat that the Pentagon will also cut off its intelligence feed.
Now the FT has reported that funds for two programs to support countries on the frontline with Russia, notably the Baltic nations, are being cut by Trump and there will be no more money after September next year.
Trump has struck some $228 million for Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, off his budget for future military spending, and a Pentagon program is also being cut, slashing $1.9 billion for East European countries’ defense against Russia.
As the war grinds on, Trump has broadly accepted Putin’s view that Ukraine and NATO provoked the invasion of Kyiv. He has also ruled out any US forces in Ukraine as part of any future force alongside the “coalition of the willing.”
No fan of the structures of international and humanitarian law, Trump has said it is likely that Russia would hold most or all of the territory it has captured in Ukraine – a violation of international law.
On top of that, he has hosted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also an ICC-indicted alleged war criminal, in Washington.
And this week he gleefully released a video of the killing of 11 alleged drug traffickers who were killed, or “smoked” as Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense put it, by a US missile in international waters.
“There’s more where that came from,” Trump said.
Targeting people on suspicion of involvement in criminal acts that pose no clear danger to a US citizen or even an ally is breathtaking. It is forbidden under international law and US military codes.
The White House says the dead were “narco-terrorists.” But the US has waged a “war on drugs” in South and Central America for years without using extrajudicial executions.
Deputy Editor
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