How Trump left Ukraine and Europe reeling – podcast | Ukraine

Final Monday, the Guardian’s central and japanese European correspondent, Shaun Walker, sat down in Kyiv to interview the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The dialog, Walker explains, was dominated by what Zelenskyy hoped to attain in any upcoming talks on a ceasefire deal in Ukraine. The president outlined his pink traces, too: that the US must be concerned ultimately in securing Ukrainian safety as soon as the combating stopped; and that any negotiations over its future must contain Ukraine itself.

But as Michael Safi hears, barely two days later Donald Trump blew all of that out of the water. The US president stated he had referred to as Vladimir Putin immediately and begun to debate how the warfare in Ukraine may finish.

If the announcement shocked leaders in Kyiv and throughout Europe, worse was but to return – as statements from senior Trump officers started to name into query the very way forward for any US help for Europe’s safety, undermining an alliance that got here into existence practically 80 years in the past.

So, what subsequent for Ukraine? And if the US does intend to withdraw its help for its allies in Europe, how will the continent defend itself in future?