European officials fear that US President Donald Trump's latest rhetoric on Ukraine "is intended to set them an impossible mission" that will allow the American leader to "shift the blame from Washington if Kyiv fails in the war or runs out of money," the Financial Times reports, writes UNN.
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As the publication writes, "after months of pressuring Ukraine to settle with Moscow and give up Russian-occupied territory," the US president on Tuesday stunned European capitals by stating on social media that Kyiv could "fight and repel" all its lands "with the help of the EU."
While Trump's new stance was welcomed in some circles, several European officials "concluded that he was shifting responsibility for Ukraine's defense to them with expectations that Europe would find difficult to meet."
Trump also took a tougher stance on sanctions, calling on the EU to stop buying Russian oil and impose tariffs on China and India – moves that Trump's Hungarian ally Viktor Orbán has long said he would block, the publication notes.
"This is the beginning of a blame game," one official said of Trump's sharp change of views, adding that "the US knew that tariffs on China and India would be impossible" for the EU to accept.
Trump is "building an exit ramp" to be able to blame Europe when and if he needs to, a European government aide said. The change was "striking" and "generally good," but Trump "set a very high bar," a German official noted.
"Trump wants to avoid that after nine months in power, this war also becomes his war," and not just "Biden's war," said Carlo Masala, professor of international relations at the Bundeswehr University Munich.
One European official pointed to Trump's signature "Good luck everyone!" under his Truth Social post as equivalent to a handover note.
Another European official said, "Everyone sees that he is disengaging."
After a bilateral meeting with Trump in New York on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron put a more positive spin on the US president's statement, calling it "very correct."
"If we fully support Ukraine in this situation, the Russian economy suffers, so there is an opportunity for a good future," Macron added.
"But EU leaders have concluded that Trump is no longer a reliable ally," officials said.
Trump's tone on the conflict has shifted since his return to the White House in January. After clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February, he softened his approach to Ukraine. On Tuesday, he called the Ukrainian leader "a brave man."
The US president also "became frustrated with his inability to end the war and with Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian president that he must participate in peace talks or face consequences."
After the summit in Alaska with Putin, Trump increased pressure on European countries to take responsibility for ending the conflict.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister, told the Financial Times in Kyiv on Wednesday that Trump's remarks on Ukraine "were not a spontaneous emotional outburst."
"They resulted from lengthy, multi-level discussions with Ukraine, European partners, and American officials" over several weeks, said Kyslytsya, who was in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy and Trump during their last meeting.
"They resulted from [Trump] being provided with intelligence," as well as advice from his top advisors, he added. Kyslytsya disagreed with the assertion by some European officials that the US president is backing away from Ukraine and imposing impossible conditions on them. He said Trump made a valid point. "Europeans can do more and should do more," he said, referring to some EU members who still buy oil and gas from Russia.
In recent weeks, the US president has focused on Russian energy exports to Europe. While they have fallen sharply since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Hungary and Slovakia continue to import Russian oil, while France, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands buy Russian liquefied natural gas.
In his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump stated that he was ready to impose "powerful tariffs" that could "stop the bloodshed" in Ukraine, but only if European countries were willing to implement the same measures. "They are buying oil and gas from Russia, while at the same time fighting Russia," Trump said. "It's a shame."
He did not elaborate on what these measures would be. But earlier this month, he called on the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on India and China – Russia's largest energy consumers – a request that Brussels considered impossible. European officials found it hard to believe that Trump would follow through on his commitments if they imposed high tariffs on Beijing and New Delhi, said Liana Fix, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They don't believe Trump will follow suit," Fix said. "He's unreliable on this issue."