UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Donald Trump in the White House, Washington D.C. February 27, 2025

EA on Times Radio and BBC: Trump and Musk v. Ukraine and Europe

Thursday’s Coverage: Trump — No US Security Guarantee for Kyiv v. Russia’s Invasion

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2126 GMT:

European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas responds to the attack of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky:

UPDATE 2043 GMT:

Republican Rep. Don Bacon has broken from Donald Trump over the treatment of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance:

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney:

UPDATE 2032 GMT:

The latest displays of support for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.

Outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz:

Nobody wants peace more than the citizens of Ukraine! That is why we are working together to find a way to a lasting and just peace. Ukraine can rely on Germany – and on Europe.

Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof:

The Netherlands continues to support Ukraine. Especially now. We want lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression that Russia has started. For Ukraine, for all its inhabitants and for Europe.

Portugal’s Luis Montenegro: “Ukraine can always count on Portugal, President Zelensky.”

Luxembourg Prime minister Luc Frieden: “Luxembourg stands with Ukraine. You are fighting for your freedom and a rules based international order.”

UPDATE 2029 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has posted:

UPDATE 1955 GMT:

More national leaders have supported Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

French President Emmanuel Macron:

Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the aggressed people.

I think we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago, and to continue to do so. We, that is the United States of America, the Europeans, the Canadians, the Japanese and many others.

And we must thank all those who have helped and respect those who have been fighting since the beginning. Because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, their children and the security of Europe.

These are simple things, but they’re good to remember at times like these, that’s all.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez:

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre:

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson: “Sweden stands with Ukraine. You are not only fighting for your freedom but also for all of Europe’s. Slava Ukraini!”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda:

Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Simon Harris:

UPDATE 1906 GMT:

Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor Kirill Dmitriev, who is engaged in talks with US officials to lift sanctions on Moscow, is celebrating on Elon Musk’s X:

Former President Dmitry Medvedev cheered that Zelensky got “a proper slap down in the Oval Office”.

UPDATE 1859 GMT:

A message from Polish President Donald Tusk to Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people:

UPDATE 1855 GMT:

Donald Trump has cancelled the joint press conference, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has left the White House without signing the minerals agreement with the US.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports that the Ukrainians wanted to continue the talks but were sent away without lunch.

UPDATE 1854 GMT:

From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:

UPDATE 1827 GMT:

A US security guarantee for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invasion appears to be doomed after a verbal ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by Vice President J.D. Vance, followed by Donald Trump, in the White House.

In a joint press appearance, Trump and Zelensky had exchanged viewpoints, sometimes with polite disagreement, about the state of the invasion, direct US-Russia talks, and the levels of US and European aid to Kyiv.

Trump ratcheted up the tension by balancing between Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, saying he was aligned with both because otherwise he would never get a deal. He refused to “say terrible things about Putin” — including the US objections to resolutions at the UN and G7 condemning “Russian aggression” — which would make negotiations difficult.

Vance set off the explosion after he asserted, in support of direct US-Russia talks, “What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing”

Zelensky detailed Vladimir Putin’s killing of Ukrainians as he broke agreement and then asked politely, “So, what kind of diplomacy, J.D., are you speaking about?”. Vance shouted that the President was being “disrespectful”.

When Zelensky invited him to come to Ukraine rather than just speaking generally of Kyiv’s “problems”, Vance declared that he knew of Ukraine’s “propaganda tours”.

Trump then lectured Zelensky that he “had to be grateful” and cut off any response:

Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel….You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position….You don’t have the cards right now with us.

You are gambling with the lives of millions, you are gambling with World War Three. And what you are doing is very disrespectful to this country.

Vance continued to hector Zelensky over a lack of gratitude, despite repeated thanks from Zelensky, and Trump raising his voice, Zelensky asked, “Do you think that if you will speak loudly…”, only to be cut off again.

Closing the meeting, Trump lectured Zelensky:

The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States.

And your people are very brave. But you’re either going to make a deal or we are out and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out.

I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out.

But you don’t have the cards but once we sign that deal. You’re in a much better position [with the deal], but you’re not acting at all thankful and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest.

UPDATE 1408 GMT:

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Europe against entering into a “happy vassalage” to the Trump Administration.

“Submission is not the answer,” he said during a two-day trip to Portugal.

Macron said Europe must “rediscover its taste for risk, ambition, and power” — “more united and stronger than ever” to take decisive steps in “technological, industrial, defense matters”.

“I see a lot of people in Europe saying, ‘we’ll have to be nice to the Americans, it’ll pass, we have to bend our backs,'” Macron said alongside Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.

He explained that raised the issue of Trump’s threatened tariffs during their meeting in the White House on Monday but was left “with very little hope” that the issue could be resolved.

He noted the “misunderstandings” of the Trump Administration that the European Union’s value added tax is a tariff, a claim which is “factually false”.

Commenting on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the President suggested that it was a mistake to say at the beginning that Europe would at no point commit to sending “boots on the ground, forever”.

I think you should not underestimate the fact that three years ago, everybody thought that the landslide victory of Russia was certain….[It] was presented by Russia was a special operation for three weeks.

Three years later, they took some territories, but we cannot present it as a victory for Russia.

He noted some strategic defeats for Russia, with Sweden and Finland joining NATO: “This is why we have to resist. This is why we have to help the Ukrainians to put themselves in the best possible situation, to negotiate a solid and long-standing peace.”

UPDATE 0913 GMT:

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has posted about his phone call with Donald Trump on Thursday:

UPDATE 0810 GMT:

Three civilians have been killed and 20 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

The fatalities were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where seven people were wounded.

Air defenses downed 107 of 208 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 97 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

A Russian drone strike on Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine damaged three high-rise buildings and five houses, with three apartments were destroyed by fire. An 82-year-old woman was injured.

UPDATE 0802 GMT:

Turkish imports of Russian oil have fallen almost 85% amid tightening of US and UK sanctions from January 10 against Moscow’s “shadow fleet” and banks.

Turkish purchases of Russian Urals oil were 0.24 million tons in February — the lowest level since December 2022 — down from 1.56 million tons in January.

Turkey’s leading refiner Tupras has stopped accepting shipments of Russian crude, demanding that they comply with the $60 per barrel price cap set by the G7.

Turkish imports of oil from Africa, including Nigeria, reached a five-year high in February.

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

The Trump Administration is open to a minerals deal with Russia, says Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East.

Witkoff told Fox TV on Thursday, “I think there will be plenty of opportunities for the United States with Russia when this peace deal gets finished.”

The envoy did not indicate if he was referring to minerals in Russia, in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, or both.

Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin offered a deal to Trump over minerals in territory seized by Moscow as well as inside Russia.

Trump responded, “I’d like to buy minerals on Russian land too if we can. The rare earth, they have very good rare earth….It’s great for Russia too, because we could do deals there.”

UPDATE 0725 GMT:

The European Union’s foreign policy head Kaja Kallas has called out Donald Trump for supporting the Kremlin’s lines over Ukraine and NATO.

Why are we in Nato? It is because we are afraid of Russia. And the only thing that really works – the only security guarantee that works – is NATO’s umbrella.

Responding to Trump’s declaration last week that Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO was “probably the reason the whole thing started”, Kallas said, “These accusations are totally untrue. That is the Russian narrative that we should not buy.”

She commented on direct talks between the Trump Administration and the Kremlin:

My question is, why we should give Russia what they want on top of what they have already done – attacking Ukraine, annexing territory, occupying territory, and now offering something on top of it?…

Consider here in America that after 9/11 you would have sat down with Osama bin Laden and said “OK, what else do you want?” I mean, it’s unimaginable.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Playing his part in a European initiative to save US aid for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s three-year invasion, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has flattered and charmed Donald Trump in the White House in Washington.

But at the end of Thursday’s photo opportunities — and, more importantly, meetings behind the scenes — there was no sign of Trump joining Europe in ensuring Ukrainian security.

Starmer brought a UK commitment to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, giving Trump credit even though the Labour Government had already planned on the increase amid Russia’s threat.

But the big, shiny prize was a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump to a State visit.

It is the first time that the UK will host a foreign leader for a second visit, following Trump’s tour in 2019, with Starmer emphasizing the occasion as “special” and “unpredecented”. The event would be ==symbolic of the “strength of the relationship between us”.

Just as he beamed when he was invited with a giant letter in a giant envelope to visit North Korea in 2019, he gushed over his welcome from the King, “a beautiful man and a wonderful man”.

The gestures brought some immediate payoffs for Starmer: Trump supported the UK’s transfer of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which has been vehemently by the Trumpist satellite UK Reform Party and its national outlets, and he indicated that Britain will be exempted from any tariffs slapped from the European Union.

But on the issue of the US joining a security guarantee for Ukraine, he did not lift his blockade.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who met Trump on Monday, and Starmer brought a plan for troops from France, the UK, and possibly other NATO members to deploy in western Ukraine. The forces will bolster air defenses and protect energy infrastructure and facilities such as drone manufacturing plants.

Both France and the UK have said the initiative, which will also be sought by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on Friday, requires a backstop of US airpower to deter Russian attacks. The warplanes will be positioned in Poland and Romania.

In his initial remarks alongside Starmer, Trump rambled incoherently:

First, you can have European countries because they’re right there. We’re very far away. We have an ocean between us.

But we want to make sure it works. I don’t know when you say backstop – you mean a backstop psychologically or militarily or what.

But we are a backstop, because we’ll be over there, we’ll be working in the country.

So I just don’t think you’re going to have a problem.

Asked about the US being “over there…in the country”, Trump insisted that a deal for Ukraine to send minerals to the Administration would be the “backstop”. Pressed on how this would operate, he said:

I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things which we need for our country.

Reporters followed up, “Would the US help the UK if British forces were attacked by the Russians?” Trump collapsed into a long diversion:

You know, I’ve always found about the British, they don’t need much help. They can take care of themselves very well.

Now, it sounds like it’s evasive, but it’s not evasive.

You know, the British have been incredible soldiers, incredible military, and they can take care of themselves.

But if they need help, I’ll always be with the British, OK, I’ll always be with them, but they don’t need help.

Starmer responded that it was important for the two countries to be there “backing each other up”.

Trump: Putin “Will Keep His Word”

The rest of Trump’s comments were a mix of evasion and falsehood. Asked about his statement that Zelensky is a “dictator” and whether he still held the view, Trump answered, “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question.”

As on Monday with Macron, he said wrongly that Ukraine is repaying $138 billion in assistance from Europe during Russia’s invasion — an argument for Kyiv paying back around $125 billion in aid that the Biden Administration delivered.

“We’ve paid far more than any other country,” Trump blustered.

Like Macron, Starmer politely pushed back: “Quite a bit of our [aid] was gifted. It was given. There were some loans, but mainly it was gifted actually.”

Perhaps the most significant — and truest — Trump statement was his declaration of faith in Vladimir Putin. Asked what the Administration would do if Putin did not adhere to a ceasefire deal, Trump responded:

I think he’ll keep his word. I’ve spoken to him. I’ve known him for a long time now.

You know we had to go through the Russian hoax together [Russia’s collaboration with the Trump campaign in the 2016 Presidential election]. That was not a good thing….

I’ve known him for a long time now, and I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word.

Starmer returned to the fundamental point:

If there’s a deal in, we’ve got to make sure it’s a deal that lasts, that is not temporary, that lasts, and that’s why we need to make sure that it’s secure.

And we’ve leant in and said we’ll play our part, and we’ve talked and we will talk about how we work with yourself, Mr President, to ensure that this deal is something which is not violated because it’s very important, if there is a deal, we keep it.

He softened any pushback with more flattery: “I don’t think it would have happened if the space hadn’t been created by yourself.”