It began as a percentage disagreement about European defence spending. “I think Nato should have 5 per cent,” Donald Trump declared on 7 January. “They can all afford it, but they should be at 5 per cent not 2 per cent.” But once Trump took office on 20 January, percentages became peripheral. From the outset, the new US president shifted away from Nato’s unequivocal support for Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine in their three-year struggle against Vladimir Putin’s invasion. America’s commander-in-chief seemed determined to prioritise relations with Russia instead of Europe.
The turn was dramatised in the Oval Office on 28 February when Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, berated Zelensky for blocking a peace deal with Russia and showing insufficient gratitude for US aid. Over the next few days the US “paused” military aid to Ukraine and the sharing of intelligence, increasing Ukraine’s vulnerability to Russian bombing.
Content from our partners
