Only Ukraine, not Trump, can decide to surrender territory in exchange for peace with Putin

His decision to call Russian despot Vladimir Putin to discuss peace talks, and only afterwards speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, sent its own message, reportedly delighting the Kremlin.

This, on top of the Trump administration’s suggestions that Ukraine will not be able to join Nato and that it may have to surrender land for peace, created a bleak picture of the new US President’s intentions.

‘There is no betrayal’

The apparent concessions prompted European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to make an obvious point: "We shouldn't take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started, because it plays to Russia's court. Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It's appeasement. It has never worked."

Of course, Trump has no right to say Ukraine should surrender its territory to Putin – only they can decide whether or not to take such a course. And Nato's official position is that Kyiv is on an "irreversible" path to membership.

No wonder that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth found himself saying: “There is no betrayal.” No wonder that Jake Sullivan, former President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, told BBC HardTalk it was "plausible" to believe Putin would be "sitting in Kyiv today" had Trump been US President when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Zelensky warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war" and said the main thing was to "not allow everything to go according to Putin's plan". “We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreements (made) without us,” he added.

Russia has said that Ukraine will “of course” be involved in peace talks. Which side of the table Trump will be sitting on remains to be seen.