Amid war of words, Trump envoy meets Ukraine’s Zelensky

Dmitry Peskovspokesman

We absolutely agree with the American administration.

The Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov gloated yesterday

Russia's highly censored state television has, over the past two years, consistently promoted the rape of Ukrainians, the drowning of children, the levelling of cities, the eradication of the Ukrainian elite, and the physical extermination of millions of Ukrainians.

An insight into just how traumatic rule by Moscow could be has been given by Foreign Policy magazine

Hopefully this is the moment when Europe finally gets its act together, because it's clear that there is not a lot going on strategically in the US,

he added, referring to what he described as Trump's erratic outbursts in recent days

While Trump may be erratic and chaotic in how he is rolling out his agendas, at the strategic level he is doing pretty much exactly what he promised,

European Council on Foreign Relations expert Nick Witney wrote on Thursday

Emmanuel Macronfrench President

Now, it seems that the fire has really been lit,

Tallis added, pointing to emergency talks convened by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday

If we are talking about peacekeepers, then we are walking into the Russian trap because they don't want peace,

she told the European news website Euractiv on Tuesday

His approach to the war in Ukraine, as so brutally elaborated in recent days, is entirely consistent with his past behaviors and pronouncements,

the expert added

Despite the endless talk of wake-up calls, we haven't seen most of our [European] leaders being serious about doing something about it,

he said

We've been seeing the end of the old world order for quite a long time,

he said

The British Army is suffering from the cumulative effects of 40 years of decline,

Drummond said

My sense is we can cope, but it is in dire need of investment for the modern battlefield,

the lawmaker told CNN

The way in which this was delivered – blow after blow after blow, within days – that was a real shock” for the continent

said Armida van Rij, a senior research fellow and head of the Europe Programme at London-based think tank Chatham House

We do not want to fracture our relationship with America,

British defense analyst Nicholas Drummond told CNN

It will be very difficult for the military in our current situation,

admitted an MP from the governing Labour party, who has pushed the government to go beyond its planned hike to military spending, which stands at 2.3% of GDP but is set to rise to 2.5% in the coming years

European heads of government should have been getting together … to figure out what the European plan was going to be. But that hasn’t really happened.”

From the moment of Trump’s election victory, van Rij said

Biden got a lot of kit in before the inauguration. Kit is still going in

one said

Recent developments and this different view of things from the United States now oblige us not only to face the truth, but to move at a very high speed and implement decisions that we have been discussing for long,

he said

Whether that is decisions that we make regarding employment here in Ireland, our public finances, and then the obvious decisions that we are already implementing regarding investing in our own security, the urgency of this is only growing,

he told reporters on Thursday

I think it will be a very balanced discussion where we will acknowledge the friendship that is there between Ireland and America, but also acknowledge the very clear challenges and difficulties that are there due to what is now unfolding in Ukraine, and due to the challenges that we could face from a tariff point of view and indeed a tax point of view,

he said

Any reduction in that trade, anything that could damage it, would result in higher prices, could result in the loss of jobs, could result in tax revenue being lost that we all need to fund public services across the world,

he said