‘If Trump wins the US presidential election, European countries may refuse further support for Ukraine’, – expert says

Some European NATO member countries may withdraw their support for Ukraine if Donald Trump wins the US elections.

This opinion was expressed by Derrick Wyatt, a professor of law at Oxford University, in a column for Politico.

He suggests that if Trump wins, he may attempt to encourage Ukraine to end the war along the current front lines, leaving the territories already captured by Russia under Russian control. This would then present European countries with a difficult choice: “either accept a settlement in favor of Russia, or support Zelensky in rejecting such a deal and continue to resist Russian aggression.”

However, the author believes that in the latter case, Trump may withdraw US security guarantees under the NATO treaty to force Europe “not to escalate the war by supplying weapons to Ukraine.” Such a threat could cause some European countries to withdraw their support for Ukraine, facing the threat of confrontation with Russia without US protection guarantees.

Europe may have to make a deal with Trump to allow it to continue supporting Ukraine. As part of such a deal, Ukraine would be prohibited from striking Russian territory with Western weapons. However, the author believes it is far from certain that Trump would agree to such a deal.

Earlier, The New York Times wrote that Europe does not know how to behave with Trump if he returns to power.

Trump himself has repeatedly stated that the war in Ukraine needs to be ended as soon as possible.