NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump is the only figure worldwide who has succeeded in breaking the deadlock over the war in Ukraine.
Rutte was speaking to reporters as the foreign ministers of the military bloc gathered in Brussels.
Trump's sweeping 28-point peace plan sees Ukraine cede large swaths of territory to Russia, slash its military, and abandon NATO ambitions. Under the proposal, Ukraine would withdraw from the Donbas regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, areas at the heart of Russia’s 2022 invasion, and recognize Crimea as “de facto Russian,” a status the U.S. would also acknowledge. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, regions occupied by Russia, would remain “frozen along the line of contact.” In total, Russian forces control roughly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. Kyiv would also cut its army to 600,000 troops and forgo European-led peacekeepers, though European fighter jets would be stationed in Poland to offer indirect protection.
NATO troops would be prohibited from entering Ukraine, and the country would constitutionally renounce membership in the alliance.
Rutte also said two-thirds of the member states of NATO have committed to the weapons for Ukraine through the so-called Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), which has received commitments worth 4 billion dollars so far.
"We heard from Australia and New Zealand will also contribute to PURL, the first NATO partners to do so. And this means that allies and partners have already committed now really over 4 billion," Rutte said.
