- Trump will shift from blaming Ukraine to blaming Europe as a pretext for chaotic US withdrawal from the Transatlantic alliance. The stage was set for this with his MAGA Republican election victory and Democratic Party weakness, the negotiations are just a farcical pantomime.
- ⚡️Europe rejects US push to recognize Russian occupation of Crimea, FT reports. An unnamed senior European official told the FT that the Trump administration had already been informed that European capitals would not recognize Crimea as Russian.
