The most important priority of European governments is to secure their continent. The European security order hinges on holding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperialist ambitions at bay. On the day that Trump won reelection, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, announced that “the objectives of the special military operation [in Ukraine] remain unchanged and will be achieved”—a rejoinder to Trump’s campaign pledge to end the war immediately. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signaled that he might be willing to agree to a cease-fire that includes some loss of territory in exchange for credible security guarantees such as Ukraine’s admission to NATO and support for its defense. But Keith Kellogg, the incoming U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has said that the United States should bring Ukraine to the negotiating table by withholding weapons and suggested that a cease-fire built on Ukraine’s acceptance of a de facto long-term Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine could be on the table. And although Zelensky wants NATO membership and ongoing U.S. military aid to ensure that the rest of the country remains independent and sovereign, neither the United States nor Russia currently seems ready to agree to such terms.

It's a 180 which I've been fearing with Trump, but still seems hard to believe.

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[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 27 points 2 days ago

Trump has a record of changing his mind within a phone call. Also he is often making threats and then not followed through on them.

We also already saw the US not sending weapons to Ukraine and although there were problems Ukraine did not collapse. In the mean time Ukraines and Europes arms industry has improved. So if that happens again it probably will be survivable.