WASHINGTON — In recent days, President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House and halted American military aid to the war-torn Ukraine.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Zelenskyy stressed that he would sign a minerals deal with the United States.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” he wrote on X. “Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format.”
Under the draft agreement, Ukraine would not receive any legally binding security guarantees against future Russian aggression, which Kyiv had requested for decades.
Igor Lukes, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, said this deal amounted to a “brutal shakedown” of Ukraine. He compared Ukraine’s dilemma to “some bad movie where some powerful cartel can blackmail a weaker party into conceding everything.”
Trump’s more combative, transactional approach toward Ukraine upended the existing world order, experts say. The U.S. had allied with European nations since World War II, but Trump moved decidedly toward Russia.
In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy and accused him of not wanting peace.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump told Zelenskyy.
In the days before the visit, Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely blamed the war on Ukraine, not Russia. A U.N. resolution that passed 93-18 condemned Russia’s aggression and demanded it withdraw all of its troops from Ukraine. The U.S. joined Russia, Belarus, and North Korea in opposing it.
Scheherazade Rehman, director of the European Union Research Center at George Washington University, said this foreign policy shift undermined America’s credibility as an ally.
“People around the world, leaders in countries around the world, are not going to trust the United States anymore from one election to the next because foreign policy has completely changed,” Rehman said. “American commitment now doesn’t mean much.”
Following Trump’s Friday meeting with Zelenskyy, leaders from various Western nations reaffirmed their support for Ukraine. The United Kingdom on Sunday hosted a summit of European leaders, who rallied behind Ukraine.
“Every nation must contribute to that in the best way that it can, bringing different capabilities and support to the table, but all taking responsibility to act, all stepping up their own share of the burden,” said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the summit.
However, Lukes said European nations remained politically divided: Some countries, like Estonia and Lithuania, viewed a Russian victory as a threat to their survival, while right-wing leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have supported Putin over Zelenskyy.
If the U.S. were to become less active in NATO, Lukes said its European allies would have to “live up to the challenge” of increasing military spending and overcoming Russian misinformation.
“The democratic politicians will have to come together, establish alliances and hope that the voters will not all fall for the lies that they’re being fed on social media by the manipulations, by the Russian intelligence services,” Lukes said.
Trump’s decision to cut off military aid to Ukraine could hamper the nation’s effort to defeat Russia. Zelenskyy told NBC News in February that continuing the fight without U.S. support would be “very, very, very difficult.” Rehman echoed this concern, emphasizing that Ukraine cannot stand against Russia with only European support.
“Without American security support, Ukraine is done. We all know that. Europeans know that, too,” she said.
