Donald Trump appears to be confident he can end the Ukraine war after “great talks” with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy last night – but he faces accusations of “betraying” Ukraine. Follow the latest on the war here.
Thursday 13 February 2025 15:28, UK
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The NATO chief says Vladimir Putin needs to be in peace talks, even if they can’t know what he’s really thinking.
Asked by Ukrainian media if Putin really wants to end the war, as Donald Trump said yesterday, Mark Rutte says he doesn’t know “what exactly is in Putin’s mind”.
“So of course, neither can you,” he says.
He describes Putin as a “strong negotiator” and “very unpredictable”.
“But in the end, if we want to get to a peace deal, we need him there, because he was the one starting this war of aggression against your country,” he adds.
Our security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has the first question for NATO’s secretary general.
She asks if all NATO allies are united behind Ukraine on the belief that no negotiation on ending the war can take place without it – after fears that Trump and Putin’s potential negotiations would freeze Kyiv out.
“What we are all clearly united about is that we have to make sure that when talks start, Ukraine is in the best possible position,” Mark Rutte says.
“Ukraine will be involved in any way whatsoever, and at the same time, we are also in agreement that an outcome has to be doable.
“Whenever the outcome is there, we have to make sure that Putin will not try to cap another square mile or kilometre of Ukraine.”
Defence spending is “already growing”, NATO chief Mark Rutte says, but “we need to do more – much more”.
“It is clear from our discussions today that allies recognise the need to invest much more,” he adds.
Two thirds of allies are spending at least 2% of their GDP on defence, he says, but says “we need to do more” and this needs to be “faster”.
“We need to shift to a wartime mindset and we need industry to shift with us,” he adds.
We’re hearing from NATO secretary general Mark Rutte now after a meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers in Brussels.
Shortly after he finishes speaking, we’ll hear from US defence secretary Pete Hegseth.
You can watch along in the stream at the top of this live page – and we’ll also bring you any key lines here.
Europe has been “collectively found out” over defence spending over the last three years, a former armed forces minister said.
James Heappey told our presenter Matt Barbet he believed Europe had been “found out for having not mobilised itself in terms of defence spending and industrial output towards defence” while the war in Ukraine has been ongoing.
Heappey said Donald Trump has got Vladimir Putin “into a place where they sit down and decide the fate of Ukraine without Zelenskyy and the rest of Europe”.
“If we do not invest in our defence and security very urgently, if we do not seek to rapidly fill the gap in European security that the US disinvestment leaves, then make no mistake, we will be prey,” he added.
Reacting to calls from US defence secretary Pete Hegseth for NATO members to increase defence spending, Heappey said: “If the UK seeks to lead, if the UK makes a commitment to invest in our defence, I suspect that 3.5% of GDP should be an announcement that we make pretty immediately.
“I also think that we should make a commitment to putting troops and planes on the ground and in the air in and over Ukraine and ships into the Black Sea as part of the force that will deter Russian aggression in the future.”
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
Russia is preparing for a wider war in Europe and it would be a “deadly trap” to believe that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin can find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine, a NATO defence minister has said.
Dovile Sakaliene, the defence minister of Lithuania, said European allies have a choice: either wake up to the need to rebuild their armed forces and defence industry “swiftly and very significantly” or find themselves “in a very difficult situation to put it diplomatically”.
She was speaking as defence ministers from NATO held their first meeting since Donald Trump returned to power.
The minister predicted that discussions at the gathering today in Brussels would be tough with the alliance facing a choice between two different directions of travel: follow a path set out by Russia and the White House or empower Europe to shape its own future.
“Whether we decide to fall under the illusion that Trump and Putin are going to find a solution for all of us – and that would be a deadly trap – or we will as Europe embrace our own economic, financial and military capacity and we will be the ones who will be deciding what will happen in Europe and in Ukraine, with the US,” she said.
Sakaliene underlined the vital importance of the US as part of NATO but said it was crucial that European allies and Canada step up and pay for their own security instead of benefitting from the protection provided by Washington’s far more powerful armed forces.
She warned that time was short.
“China and Russia are going to coordinate their actions and if we are not able to work together as a team for the democratic world, it is going to be the darkest times since the second world war,” the defence minister said, speaking in English to journalists.
“In a few years we will be in a situation where Russia – with the speed that it’s developing its defence industry and its army – is going to move forward,” she said.
“We all understand that Ukraine is just the first stage currently of an imperial expansion of Russia.”
Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, used his trip to allied headquarters in Brussels, to ramp up pressure on member states to spend more on their militaries and to stop relying so much on US security.
He also spelt out Washington’s vision for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying Kyiv would be “unrealistic” to think it can recapture all of its land.
More reaction to bring you now to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreeing to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has said Europe will continue to support Ukraine if it resists the terms of a peace deal it has not agreed to.
Kallas stated that for any deal to work, Europe and Ukraine need to be involved in peace talks, adding it wasn’t “good tactics” to give in to Russia’s demands before negotiations have started.
Her comments follow statements by NATO defence ministers this morning calling for Europe and Ukraine to be part of any negotiations (see our 11.13am post).
The danger is taking Donald Trump “at his word”, our military analyst Sean Bell has said.
The US president and Vladimir Putin agreed to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but Bell pointed out there is a key absentee in negotiations.
“We’ve got to remember this isn’t a fight between Russia and America, it’s between Russia and Ukraine,” he told our presenter Jayne Secker.
“Ultimately, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to be a key part of that conversation.”
Bell explained that Trump is trying to distance himself from his predecessor Joe Biden by offering a fresh approach.
“Trump is a seasoned negotiator, so almost certainly he wouldn’t want to be giving away key bargaining chips,” he added.
Putin is on the front foot, Bell said, adding the danger is taking Trump “at his word”.
“We’ve heard over the last few days, he’s made announcements about the Panama Canal, about Greenland and about Gaza,” he said.
“What we’ve actually got to work out is his agenda, because I don’t think we can take his words at face value.”
Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin has left Ukrainians asking what they have done wrong, Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik has told Sky’s Jayne Secker.
She says it is “hurtful to hear” that the isolation of Putin has ended and that the US “cannot make clear what the security guarantees for Ukraine will be if a peace deal is made” after the two leaders spoke.
“But they can make clear the country cannot be members of NATO,” she says.
Rudik says many Ukrainians are asking her a question today which she does not have an answer to.
She says: “The question is ‘what did we do wrong?’
“We are fighting for our nation, our future, our democracy and are a sovereign state – we want to survive. So what is our fault here?
“Is it that Russia is our neighbour and at some point the unity of the West was not enough to push Russia back from our territory?
“What is going to happen to everyone who suffered through the war crimes Russia committed?”
She also says neither US defence secretary Pete Hegseth nor Trump have clarified who or what will ensure that Russia does not attack Ukraine again in this peace deal.
Ukraine will not accept any peace deals reached between the US and Russia in its absence, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said this afternoon.
Speaking to reporters about his call with Donald Trump last night – which came after Putin’s – he said the country needed to be at the negotiating table.
He said he didn’t discuss NATO membership in the call with Trump but knows the US doesn’t want Ukraine to join the defence alliance.
“Today it’s important that everything does not go according to Putin’s plan, in which he wants to do everything to make his negotiations bilateral [with the US],” the Ukrainian leader said.
Trump is hopeful that a peace deal will be made but he appears to have given concessions to Putin before talks have even started.
The American president said last night it was impractical for Ukraine to join NATO and it was unlikely to get all of its occupied land back.
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