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Defense &
National Security

Defense &
National Security

The Big Story

Will Trump get played by Putin? Europe is worried

President Trump's sharp criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday is sending chills across Europe, where leaders are working to guard against the worst-case scenario: Trump aligning with Russia.

© Greg Nash

Trump blew past a deadline last week to impose punishing sanctions on Russia and its primary trading partners in exchange for the face-to-face meeting with Putin, set for Friday in Alaska.

And while the president has expressed increased frustration with Putin and Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, he this week reverted to criticisms that Zelensky is to blame for starting the war.

“[Trump] is very unpredictable,” Lesia Zaburanna, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and the deputy chair of the budget committee, said in a call with The Hill.

“We highly appreciate all American support, and we highly appreciate all military, financial support. But if we talk about the situation with Trump’s negotiation, we are not sure what we will have on Friday.”

The worst case scenario, Zaburanna said, would be if Trump reached an agreement with Putin on territorial concessions without Ukraine, and a fatal blow for Kyiv would be if Trump withdrew U.S. support, particularly intelligence sharing on the battlefield and military support.

Zaburanna described living in Kyiv now as similar to the first days of the full-scale invasion — nightly air raid alarms, massive explosions, menacing drone attacks, destruction of civilian buildings and mounting casualties.

Trump has provided few details on his goals for the meeting, telling reporters Monday he’s using the summit as an opportunity to “feel out” Putin, who has so far rebuffed all his calls for a ceasefire and increased the pace of attacks on Ukraine.

But Zelensky told reporters this week that Ukraine could be asked to withdraw from the Donbas region to attain a ceasefire. Zelensky said he’d received these indications from Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy to the region.

“During the call, I said........

© The Hill