Wartime NATO summits have focused on Ukraine. With Trump, this one will be different

BRUSSELS, June 24 ------ At its first summits after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO gave President Volodymyr Zelensky pride of place at its table. It won’t be the same this time.

Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War II is now in its fourth year and still poses an existential threat to the continent. Ukraine continues to fight a war so that Europeans don’t have to. Just last week, Russia launched one of the biggest drone attacks of the invasion on Kyiv. But things have changed. The Trump administration insists that it must preserve maneuvering space to entice Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, so Ukraine must not be allowed steal the limelight.

In Washington last year, the military alliance’s weighty summit communique included a vow to supply long-term security assistance to Ukraine, and a commitment to back the country “on its irreversible path” to NATO membership. The year before, a statement more than twice as long was published in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. A new NATO-Ukraine Council was set up, and Kyiv’s membership path fast-tracked. Zelensky received a hero’s welcome at a concert downtown. It will be very different at a two-day summit in the Netherlands that starts. NATO’s most powerful member, the United States, is vetoing Ukraine’s membership. It’s unclear how long for.

Zelensky is invited again, but will not be seated at NATO’s table. The summit statement is likely to run to around five paragraphs, on a single page, NATO diplomats and experts say. Ukraine will only get a passing mention.

Source: apnews.com