Pawns Europe & Ukraine Got Played – The Hidden Message Behind US-Russia Talks In Saudi Without Allies

Pawns Europe & Ukraine Got Played – The Hidden Message Behind US-Russia Talks In Saudi Without Allies


February 19th, 2025 by financetwitter



European leaders from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and the United Kingdom (as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen) scrambled to an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday (Feb 17) after the Trump administration excluded them from talks with Russia to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

To stay relevant and not look like a fool, the gathering was deliberately held one day before U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. It was humiliating largely because Washington has sidelined not only Ukraine, but also its biggest ally European Union.

The best part was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates (UAE), behaving as if he was about to be invited to join the US-Russia talks, but was ultimately ignored. Throwing tantrums, Zelensky said he would “never accept any decisions between the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine” without Ukraine’s participation. But who cares about comedian Zelensky.

As concerns have arisen that Donald Trump is forging ahead with a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could undermine Ukraine and European security, both Europe and Ukraine continue to be upset that they have not been invited to the peace talks. But from the beginning, Europe and Ukraine were merely pawns in the U.S. power play in the region.

When Trump on February 3 officially appointed retired General Keith Kellogg as a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, the writing was already on the wall the new U.S. president was not interested in the Ukraine War. Kellogg said former U.S. President Biden’s refusal to work with Putin was a “biggest mistake.” Trump wanted to end the wasteful war that the Western power cannot win.

While Europe has been shocked by the Trump administration’s moves in recent days to court Russia, which invaded Ukraine almost three years ago, Trump had criticised Joe Biden’s stance on Ukraine’s NATO membership, blaming it for provoking Russia’s invasion. Trump also said Biden’s decision to allow Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory was “stupid”.

Clearly, Trump’s policy is the opposite of Biden’s, who along with Europe and Ukraine wanted to continue the war in Ukraine because they can’t lose face of being defeated. The clueless UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer even said he “is prepared to commit British forces on the ground.” In reality, nothing can move without the U.S. commitment, and that’s a huge problem.

First, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dropped a bombshell, saying that a NATO membership for Ukraine was not a “realistic” outcome of a potential negotiated settlement to end the war. Worse, he said European security was no longer a priority for the United States. Then, Trump had a long phone call with Putin, effectively ending the Western policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Subsequently, Vice President JD Vance turned his gun on European leaders in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference, attacking them for crackdowns on free speech. Not only did he intrude into European politics, interfering in Germany’s upcoming election by supporting far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, but also saw Defence Secretary Hegseth nullified American military support for Ukraine.

With friends like the U.S., Europe does not need enemies. But the E.U. has no one to blame but itself. Even after Trump’s first term, Europe is still in slumberland, relying on the U.S. for security. Vance’s speech was a direct attack on European democracy and culture. Heck, the U.S. Vice President even told all and sundry that he was more worried about Europe’s threat than threats of Russia and China.

While Putin is looking forward to meeting his good friend Trump, Beijing is watching with popcorn the Europe’s economic decline and political turbulence. France had a budget deficit estimated to hit 6.1% and a debt pile seen at 112% in 2024. Germany, struggling with underspending and underinvestment problems, could see a new government after the collapse of governing coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The crumbling economy plaguing the two largest economy of Europe means it has to continue depending on the U.S. for its defence. Trump does not care about NATO allies because he wanted to reset the U.S.-Russian relations as the Ukraine War has been sucking up billions of American dollars without any good return on investments.

The U.S. policy of trying to isolate Russia has failed and is over. In fact, the economic and financial sanctions on the Kremlin have not only failed to bring down Putin, but have actually backfired. The Ukraine War, which led to high energy and food prices, was responsible for the global high inflation and economic slowdown. Trump wanted to slash interest rate, but that can only happen if the war ends.

At the same time, Trump also wants to woo Putin to slowly get Russia out of China’s orbit. Previously, he had mocked Biden for being stupid in driving Russia, China, Iran and North Korea to get closer together over the war in Ukraine. Instead of divide-and-conquer, Biden’s idiotic policy had forced Putin to turn to Beijing, Pyongyang and even Tehran to fund and equip Russian war machine.

The unity shown by China and Russia, such as the proposed BRICS currency, has created some havoc to the American supremacy and dominance. Thanks to Biden, China is rapidly growing its nuclear arsenal and will likely have 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030, after reaching 500 such weapons last year. Trump would like to see Russia reducing its nuclear weapons, and restart de-nuclearization talks with China.

Like it or not, the U.S. cannot allow Russia and China to be united if Washington wants to go to war with the Chinese over Taiwan later. Therefore, Ukraine will be forced to surrender its territories to Russia, one way or another. Trump is a businessman, and he has little appetite for war. That explains his proposal to take over Gaza and turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Likewise, Trump wants to secure access to Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical minerals to prevent the U.S. from being held hostage by China, which dominated the world’s supply chains of rare earth minerals. This is the reason behind Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. be granted 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals (worth US$500 billion) as reimbursement for the billions of dollars in weapons and financial aid.

However, at least 40% of Ukraine’s minerals are currently under Russian occupation in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the country. Putin knew this, and may extract concessions – offering Trump an exclusive critical minerals deal in exchange for the U.S. formally committing to not restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders and not letting the country into NATO.

Just like how Trump wants to annex Gaza but forces the Arabs to pay for the reconstruction of it, he too wants Europe to pay for American projects of rebuilding Ukraine. The fact that the U.S. president repeatedly blames Ukraine as the party responsible for Russia’s invasion speaks volumes that Ukraine has already lost the war and the corrupt Zelensky has to accept whatever deals Trump tells him to.

To send a message to Zelensky, President Trump has mocked the Ukrainian president as a poor negotiator and “grossly incompetent”. To kick Zelensky out of power, the POTUS also expressed his interest in forcing elections in Ukraine as part of any diplomatic resolution to the war. The biggest sucker is Europe, which had poured large amounts of aid into Ukraine.

From trying to grab Greenland, Panama, Canada and Gaza, now dealmaker Trump wants to grab Ukraine minerals. The Ukraine War has little to do with defending democracy or sovereignty, but everything to do with land grab and access to mineral resources. If that was not bad enough, Mr Trump also wants Ukraine to buy more U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG).