US President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive to waiting media during a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.

WASHINGTON ― After three years of trying to invade and conquer Ukraine, and three years of failing, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may soon see his fortunes change, thanks to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Comments by Trump and his defense secretary, former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, have roiled the Munich Security Conference, where European allies who were rallied to Ukraine’s cause by former President Joe Biden in 2022 are expressing betrayal.

“It’s appeasement. It has never worked,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told reporters on Thursday. “If there is an agreement made behind our backs, it simply will not work.”

Trump in a social media post on Wednesday explained in detail his long conversation with Putin about Ukraine ― without first having spoken with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy or American’s European allies who, contrary to Trump’s lies, have been bearing most of the financial burden of helping Ukraine. Trump also described the invasion as a war that “happened” rather than naming Russia as the aggressor.

Later, in comments in the Oval Office, he suggested that Russia deserved to keep parts of Ukraine: “They fought for that land, and they lost a lot of soldiers.” And that Ukraine,........

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