1 According to the White House, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has agreed to meet with President Trump to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine. Trump opposed the United States’ financial involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war during his campaign, distinguishing himself from the Biden administration’s funding of Ukraine’s military. Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth broke with years of U.S. foreign policy precedent in a recent statement asserting that Ukraine would not join NATO, a key provision for Putin. Trump has also been pushing for U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources in any potential deal. We speak to The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel about these latest developments. “There is an importance of what [Trump] is beginning to do, which is open up a process to end a war” that is “impoverishing Ukraine,” she says. “Both countries are war-weary” three years after the Russian invasion.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! 2 and was authored by Democracy Now!.