US vice president to meet Zelensky in Munich after Trump-Putin talks spark ire

American vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio will lead the US delegation to the Munich Security Conference, where world leaders and diplomats are gathering amid intense concern and uncertainty over the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

The future of Ukraine will be the top item on the agenda following a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week when they pledged to work together to end the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Mr Vance and Mr Rubio are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday for talks that many — particularly in Europe – hope will shed at least some light on Mr Trump’s ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war.

The US leader, who upended years of steadfast US support for Ukraine during his call with Mr Putin on Wednesday, has been vague about his specific intentions — other than suggesting that a deal will likely result in Ukraine being forced to cede territory that Russia has seized since it annexed Crimea in 2014.

The Russia-Ukraine war is the biggest conflict on the European continent since the Second World War.

Mr Trump is expected to cut or otherwise limit aid for Ukraine as negotiations get under way in the coming days.

“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” UK Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters at Nato headquarters as the alliance’s 32 defence ministers met for talks on the war-torn country.

Mr Trump was non-committal on Wednesday about whether Ukraine would have a seat at the table in US negotiations with Russia.

But asked by reporters on Thursday, Mr Trump said: “Of course they would. I mean, they’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, too.”

French deputy foreign minister Benjamin Haddad described Europe as being at a turning point, with the ground shifting rapidly under its feet, and said Europe must wean itself off its reliance on the United States for its security. He warned that handing a victory to Russia in Ukraine could have repercussions in Asia, too.

“I think we’re not sufficiently grasping the extent to which our world is changing. Both our competitors and our allies are busy accelerating,” Mr Haddad told broadcaster France Info on Thursday.

“What’s at stake is not just the interests of Ukraine and the Europeans. Everyone would lose, starting with the United States. And I think the United States knows that,” he said.

But Mr Trump said on Thursday that he trusts that Mr Putin wants to find an end to the war.

“I trust him on the subject,” the US President offered. “I think he’d like to see something happen.”