Europe told to get back to Cold War defence spending as Trump risks 'big mess' deal

Donald Trump is in danger of making a "big mess" of peace negotiations with Russia, as the US President looks to seal a quick deal with the Kremlin.

Western leaders and security experts have been left reeling, after the White House appeared to make big concessions to Vladimir Putin before talks even got underway last week.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Nato summit before the Riyadh summit, it was "unrealistic" to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders

He also poured cold water on Ukraine's aspirations to join Nato, which Kyiv sees as being essential to its security.

The US President then turned his guns on Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" for not holding elections last year while the Russian invasion is still ongoing and seemingly blaming Ukraine for starting the war, as tensions between the two leaders erupted.

Kristi Raik, a director at the Estonian think-tank the International Centre for Defence and Security, told the Express that an unjust peace deal would lead to more problems.

She claimed that if the US President made the mistake of appearing "weak" when discussing the deal with Putin and agreeing to terms unacceptable for Ukrainians, "there will be a big mess. She continued: "It won't be a deal that will show Trump as a great winner and great dealmaker. He will be with this huge mess and I hope he will realise it before entering into anything like that."

The American President is reportedly contemplating pulling out about 20,000 US troops from Europe, in another potential victory for Putin.

President Zelensky has urged Europe to form its own army in response to concerns over America's long-term commitment to the military alliance.

The idea of a common European army has been regularly touted by Emmanuel Macron, France's President.

Ms Raik, however, believes the idea is unrealistic and would never get off the ground.

"We have sovereign countries in Europe who take decisions on their own militaries," she explained.

"I can't see European integration suddenly advancing to a point where we would be ready to have supranational decision making on the use of military force.

"As long as NATO is there, we do it in the framework of NATO, and it's up to European states to spend more on defence and to make sure that we have a strong military force."

She noted that Europe has greater economic resources at its disposal than Russia, so should have no problem in funding greater military spending.

"To increase defence spending to 3% or 4% of GDP, it kind of sounds very radical and politically difficult for many European countries today," she said.

"But what other option do we have? This is the level that was normal during the Cold War time. So we need to get back to a similar level of defence spending. And Russia today is not as strong as the Soviet Union was."

Trump is leaning on Zelensky to agree a deal that could see the US take control of up to 50% of the country's mineral resources.

The White House has threatened to cut Ukraine's access to Starlink if the deal is rejected. Zelensky has so far refused to sign, saying the deal does not provide any security guarantees, though a breakthrough is reportedly imminent.

A former top Ukrainian official told the Express that US demands were unacceptable.

"It looks like blackmail. Ukraine has to keep in mind that once you give in to blackmail, it never ends," they said.