NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, urged Ukrainian president to repair his relationship with Donald Trump in favor of Ukraine: “I am absolutely convinced that the United States wants to bring Ukraine to that lasting peace,” he said.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Saturday he told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who needs to find a way to restore his relationship with US President Donald Trump, after his confrontation at a meeting at the White House on Friday.
The confrontation broke out by the different visions on how to end the Russian invasion that lasts three years, with Zelenskyy looking for strong security guarantees of a Trump administration that has adopted diplomacy with the Russia of Vladimir Putin.
The meeting, which Rutte described as “unfortunate”, sank the relations between kyiv and his main military support for a new minimum.
“I said: I think you have to find a way, dear Volodymyr, to restore your relationship with Donald Trump and the US administration. That is important for the future,” Routte told the BBC, commenting on a call he had with Zelenskyy on Friday.
He said he told Zelenskyy that “we really have to respect what President Trump has done so far for Ukraine,” and reminded him that Trump was the one who provided Javelin anti -tank weapons to Ukraine in 2019 that allowed the country's forces to counterattack after Russia's invasion.
“Without the Javelins in 2022, when the large -scale attack began, Ukraine would not have been anywhere,” Routte said. “I told him that we really have to give Trump credit for what he did then, so the United States has done since then and also for what the United States continues to do.”
When asked about some of the accusations exchanged among leaders on Friday, the NATO head refused to comment in detail and said that the United States was very involved in the military alliance, even in its mutual defense clause, article 5.
Rutte called Trump Amigo, but did not directly address the questions about whether Trump was right when he accused Zelenskyy of playing with World War II, or when he said that Zelenskyy needed to reach an agreement or the United States would be “out.”
“I am absolutely convinced that the United States wants to bring Ukraine to that lasting peace … and, obviously, what they need to achieve it is to make sure we will all work together on this,” he said.
When asked if NATO's allies would be able to fill the gaps in the event that the United States withdraw their military support from Ukraine, Routte replied: “We go beyond this issue. It is crucial that we all remain together in this: United States, Ukraine, Europe, that we take Ukraine to peace, this is exactly why President Trump is fighting, for what we are fighting.