The meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, which ended yesterday, and the Munich Security Conference, which begins today, are in the focus of the Western press.
US President Donald Trump's national security team arrived in Europe this week, with very few of their hard-line messages causing surprise, writes the "New York Times". Political leaders and diplomats gathering in Munich for the annual security conference, however, are shocked by the scale and suddenness of the rift with the Trump administration, the newspaper comments.
On Wednesday, the new US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a NATO meeting in Brussels that Ukraine should abandon its goal of regaining all the territory lost in the war with Russia. A few hours later, Trump spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and promised him negotiations that would include the surrender of territories occupied by Russia and an assurance that Ukraine would never join NATO. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant arrived in Kiev to begin negotiations on American rights to rare earth metals unused by Ukraine, the "New York Times" lists.
The declarations of unilateral concessions have put European leaders and, of course, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the back burner. Yesterday, they began to oppose the message of the new administration, but delicately, because they understand that if they anger Trump, they could end up in an even more stalemate, the publication commented.
Zelensky expressed gratitude on social networks to Trump for his desire to achieve peace. However, the Ukrainian leader noted yesterday that he would not accept any negotiated peace agreement if he himself did not participate in the negotiations, the "New York Times" also writes. "The important thing is that not everything is going according to Putin's plan," Zelensky noted. "There can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine", the Ukrainian leader stressed.
It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will heed this warning, ignore it, or seek a middle ground, giving Europe and Ukraine some secondary role in the negotiations, the American publication concludes.
European leaders yesterday began to adjust to the cold new world, deprived of American protection, but they also began to oppose Donald Trump's peace plan for Ukraine, the publication "Politico" writes.
In Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London, more and more voices - some calm, others angry, are warning the US president not to make territorial concessions to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The following position dominated the meeting in Brussels: Ukraine and its allies will not approve any agreement between Russia and the US if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not at the negotiating table, it also writes "Politico".
"It is clear that a deal made behind our backs will not work. You need the Europeans, you need the Ukrainians", the head of European diplomacy, Kaia Kallas, told journalists on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial meeting. "Why should we give [Russia] everything it wants before the negotiations have even started? This is appeasement. It has never worked", Kallas stressed, quoted by "Politico".
The publication cites Viktor Orban's objections. "Brussels' position of supporting the killings as long as necessary is morally and politically unacceptable", the Hungarian prime minister said. "While President Donald Trump and President Putin are negotiating peace, EU officials are making useless statements," he added.
A European diplomat told Politico that a number of EU leaders share the concern that Trump cannot be trusted to make a deal with Putin. "There is a big concern that Trump is a clumsy negotiator, that he will make crazy concessions to Russia," the diplomat said. "The general impression is that the Americans are messing up the process," he added.
President Trump is the "perfect dealmaker," the US defense secretary told a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, the Guardian reported. Hegseth stressed that the United States has already given too much to Ukraine and that it cannot restore its pre-2014 borders, the British publication adds.
"Vice President J.D. Vance said on Thursday that the United States will impose sanctions and possibly military action on Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a peace agreement with Ukraine that guarantees Kiev's long-term independence," the Wall Street Journal wrote. The newspaper notes that Vance's tone is much sharper than Hegseth's.
Vance, who will participate in the Munich Security Conference today, said in an exclusive interview with the "Wall Street Journal" that if Moscow fails to negotiate in good faith, the option of sending US troops to Ukraine "remains on the table".
"There are economic leverage tools, there are military leverage tools" that the US can use against Putin, Vance also said. "I think there will be a deal that will shock a lot of people," the US vice president emphasized to the "Wall Street Journal".
He proposed restoring relations with Russia if an agreement is reached on Ukraine. Vance warned that Moscow's current isolation from Western markets is turning it into a junior partner to Beijing. "It is not in Putin's interest to be the younger brother in a coalition with China", the American vice president also said, quoted by "Wall Street Journal".
The German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reports that today in Munich, Vance will not meet with the acting Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but with the leader of the conservative opposition Friedrich Merz.
Despite the military-political nature of the forum, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will remain in Munich for a very short time, after which he will take up his commitments regarding the election campaign of the German Social Democratic Party in northern Germany.
The traditional conference in the Bavarian capital could mark a turning point in relations between the United States under Trump and the Europeans, who in recent days seem to be devoid of leadership, confused and scared, the German newspaper also writes. While the Americans travel with a delegation of more than 60 people - ministers and members of Congress, the host country - Germany, will be represented by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who Washington expects to vacate his post soon. And then Scholz will experience the new American reality firsthand, concludes the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".