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President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday, which will be charged with tension over the U.S. leader’s views on Greenland, European defense spending and the Iran war.
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Trump arrives in Turkey on Tuesday, when he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before a summit with the full defense alliance the next day, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
Trump, who has had an up-and-down relationship with Zelenskyy, had pledged as a presidential candidate to end Russia’s war with Ukraine within a day once he returned to office. He has been frustrated by an inability to do that.
European leaders, whom Trump has criticized over tepid support for his war with Iran, have called for new U.S. and European efforts to support new peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The White House has been preoccupied for months with the conflict in Iran, leaving U.S.-brokered talks between Kyiv and Moscow stalled.
Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday about Ukraine and the upcoming summit, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted sites deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, showing strength against its much larger opponent, but a U.S. official told reporters on Sunday the administration still viewed the conflict as one in which neither side was making much progress. Trump will speak to Zelenskyy about trying to end the war, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters on a conference call.
Ties between Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – rarely warm under Trump – have worsened since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran on Feb. 28. The conflict sparked a global energy crisis, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz halting oil and gas shipments. U.S. allies, who were not consulted ahead of the strikes, grappled with the fallout.
Trump has lashed out at several NATO members who declined to allow the U.S. to use military bases to carry out early strikes and for failing to help the U.S. reopen the strait. The president has also berated partners for not raising their defense spending to 5% of GDP and repeatedly questioned whether the U.S. is getting enough from its allies.
“President Trump expects all allies to step up immediately and not only get on a sustainable path to the 5%, but get to 5% as soon as possible,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker told reporters on the conference call, calling an increase in European defense spending “really crucial.”
The U.S. has rattled allies in recent months with shifting announcements about pulling troops and resources from Europe. The U.S. has said it will withdraw 5,000 troops from the continent and slash the military assets that Washington would provide in the event of a crisis.
On Thursday, the top U.S. commander for Europe and Africa stepped down, following through on a plan that caught military leaders by surprise and sending another signal that the Trump administration wants to scale back its defense commitment to the continent.
Army Gen. Christopher Donahue, who had been seen as one of the US military’s rising stars, will be replaced by a lower-ranked general in an acting capacity until Trump picks a successor. Donahue had been nominated by former President Joe Biden and served in the role for about 18 months, far less than the typical tenure for the position.
His abrupt decision to depart — which Army officials confirmed last week — has fueled speculation that politics were at play. The Pentagon has declined to comment on the move but it fits with a push by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to dismiss many generals appointed in the Biden era and cut the overall number of high-ranking officers.
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A Pentagon official who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters said Donahue’s decision to retire was his own and that he wasn’t forced out.
“He’s been in every theater, in every dimension,” said former Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute. “This is a jarring move, a disorienting move.”
U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the NATO supreme allied commander, said Thursday that coincident with Donahue’s departure is a reduction in the post’s rank from a four-star to a three-star general — meaning that his successor may have less authority among allied counterparts and back home. That’s fueled further concern among retired U.S. military officers and U.S. allies in Europe that the administration has only begun to scale back its military presence in Europe.
“He was very well regarded in the Armed Services Committee, where I sit — both sides of the aisle thought really highly of him,” Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, told CBS’s Face the Nation last week. “The news that he was being ushered out caught us all by surprise. And we don’t yet have good answers from the Pentagon.”
Donahue had also helped oversee initial U.S. military support for Ukraine, a push that Trump has opposed in his second term.
He’d also been caught up in political mudslinging because he was the last U.S. service member to leave Afghanistan during the 2021 withdrawal. That moment was captured in a now-iconic photograph taken through a night-vision scope that showed Donahue boarding the final flight out as Kabul fell to the Taliban.
The president has also angered European nations with his aim to take over Greenland, which is part of NATO ally Denmark. The U.S. official said Trump still wanted to acquire the territory but was exploring other options in the face of European opposition to that plan.
Late last month, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte tried to soothe tensions during a visit to Washington. Rutte made a hard sell for the alliance, praising Trump for pushing countries to boost their defense spending and insisting European allies were standing alongside Washington.
The U.S. president, who has had a warm relationship with Rutte, for his part seemed largely unmoved, reiterating at one point that allies weren’t there for the U.S.. Rutte, who once praised Trump as NATO’s “daddy,” has faced his own blowback in Europe from what some say has been a too-deferential approach to the U.S. president.
Ahead of last month’s Group of Seven leaders’ summit, senior administration officials said the U.S. was happy with some of the burden-shifting of defense commitments to European countries, and is looking for more.
Fears of Russia expanding its war beyond Ukraine to other parts of Europe have heightened tension throughout the continent.
Putin has said he is willing to continue talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war, but has rejected a proposal to halt long-range strikes that have damaged both sides. The Kremlin has pushed maximalist demands for Ukrainian territory, including land Russia has failed to capture by force in a war now well into its fifth year.
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In June, Putin rejected an offer from Zelenskyy for face-to-face negotiations.
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