US President Donald Trump’s emissaries to the Kremlin may have been spinning their wheels during talks last week in Moscow on a possible Ukraine peace deal, but the Russians can now press a new advantage: The deepening divisions between Washington and Europe.
On Tuesday, Trump doubled down on his administration’s criticism of Europe, saying in a newly published interview with Politico that European nations were “weak” and “decaying” because of their immigration policies.
He also argued that Russia has the “upper hand” in its war on Ukraine and that it was time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “start accepting things” when it comes to efforts to end the conflict. “He’s going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things, you know, when you’re losing,” Trump said.
The US president’s remarks followed the release last week of a new national security strategy that aimed a broadside at European governments for their support for Ukraine, blaming “European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war” for standing in the way of a peace deal.
“A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes,” the document asserts.
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