“The talks that I have had with [Trump] and that my advisers have also had with his advisers lead to the conclusion that we can hope and assume that the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine,” Scholz told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook podcast hours before Trump effectively called time on its support for Kyiv as it resists Russia’s invasion.
Later on Wednesday, Trump announced he would begin immediate negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin while U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruled out Ukrainian membership in NATO and said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.”
Hegseth also warned his counterparts at a NATO meeting in Brussels that Ukraine would not be able to take back all the territory Russia had seized, and said there would be no U.S. troops involved in any peacekeeping operation.
The German chancellery has not yet responded to a request for comment relating to the latest developments.
On the question of whether Germany would send troops as part of a peacekeeping operation in Ukraine, Scholz suggested there would be no solution without U.S. involvement.
“It is very clear to me that there must be no solution that is not also a solution in which the U.S. is involved, because transatlantic unity must always be guaranteed,” Scholz said when asked whether Gemany would send troops as part of any potential peacekeeping operation.
