US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has said that senior members of the administration will meet with European officials this week on how to end the war in Ukraine.
And the move comes almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
Less than a day before the announcement, US media reported that Trump had had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss steps toward a negotiated solution.
However, there was no immediate confirmation of that conversation from either the White House or the Kremlin.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz also declined to comment in a television interview.
Waltz said that the Russian economy is not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to bring Putin to the negotiating table.
But Waltz also noted that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s commitments to begin talks about withdrawing some U.S. aid to Ukraine.
He said European allies will also need to take a bigger role in supporting Ukraine going forward.
“Those talks will happen this week. And I think a fundamental principle here is that the Europeans need to own this conflict going forward. President Trump is going to end it. And then in terms of security guarantees, that’s going to be with the Europeans.”
According to foreign media, Vice President JD Vance will be in Paris later Monday for an artificial intelligence summit that will bring together government officials and later this week he will go to the Munich Security Conference, where President Volodymyr Zelensky will lead the Ukrainian delegation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg will also attend the Munich conference.
On Wednesday, Hegseth will join the main international forum on the procurement of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine.
The United Kingdom is “hosting” the 26th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a group of about 50 partner countries, on Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels. /
