Zelensky Signals He Will Resist Trump Admin’s Attempt to End War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that he will “never accept” decisions made by the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine’s future, according to Axios, but U.S. officials have said that negotiations will include Ukraine. President Trump is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to work on beginning a negotiation to bring an end to the war. President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed the meeting and that Ukraine will be “part of the talks.”

European allies expressed concern over the role Ukraine would play in the peace talks as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth raised NATO’s eyebrows with his comment that neither Russia nor Ukraine will “get everything that they want.”

According to the Associated Press, “Hegseth denied that the U.S. has betrayed Ukraine by launching negotiations about its future without Kyiv’s full involvement,” but said that “it’s just a cheap political point to say, oh, we’ve left all the negotiating cards off the table by recognizing some realities that exist on the ground.”

Hegseth also urged European allies to spend more money on their own defense budgets. “Twenty-three of the 32 member countries were forecast to have met the organization’s guideline of spending 2% of gross domestic product on their national defense budgets last year, but a third still do not,” according to the AP.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance also warned that Europe must be ready to defend itself.

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz asserted that “at the end of the day…this is going to be under President Trump’s leadership that we get this war to an end.”

President Trump questioned whether Ukraine should be admitted to NATO and suggested that Ukraine may not be able to reclaim all of its occupied territory. Trump also suggested that Biden’s push to put Ukraine into NATO could have contributed to the start of the war, and that it would not have started if had been president.

The talks of a peace agreement are still in the “early stages,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation’, adding that Ukraine and European nations “will have to be involved” in the negotiations.

In his interview, Zelensky stressed the broader implications of any perceived weakening of NATO or U.S. support for Ukraine. He argued that Putin’s ultimate goal extends beyond Ukraine and includes undermining NATO itself.