European officials fear they will have to bear the cost of postwar security and reconstruction as they reel from being cut out of US-Russia peace negotiations on Ukraine.
Donald Trump said on Wednesday, after talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that their delegations would “start negotiations immediately” to end the war, blindsiding European capitals who had failed to make their case for being included in the process.
More than half a dozen senior European officials told the Financial Times they expected the US president to tell them they must pay for Ukrainian reconstruction and deploy troops there to maintain a peace deal in which they would not be involved.