President Donald Trump’s suggestion that a settlement with Russia could reshape security arrangements across all of Europe, not just end the war in Ukraine, has unnerved NATO allies and drawn a pointed warning from a former top alliance commander that Vladimir Putin has long sought to carve the world into spheres of influence.
The concern surfaced as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected what he called a potential “Yalta 2.0,” and as European governments argued over whether individual countries should be opening their own lines to Putin ahead of delegations due to meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11.
Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told Fox News Digital that Putin’s ambitions reach well beyond Ukraine’s borders.
“Putin has a plan for the world, and he has pushed that plan on leaders several times,” Breedlove said. “He talks about it and he writes about it.”
Trump raised the prospect of a wider agreement on Thursday after meeting Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House.
“It’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine… I could even say it might involve all of Europe,” Trump told reporters. “It’s going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone’s going to be thrilled.”
Breedlove said Putin has repeatedly floated a vision in which global power is divided among Russia, China and the United States.
“The plan is three spheres of influence whereby China controls the Far East, Russia controls Europe, and America controls the Western Hemisphere. I do not expect there’s going to be a lot of cooperation from the countries of Europe,” he said. “The Western world is waiting to see what this big plan is, and they are very concerned because it is about them.”
Zelenskyy invokes Yalta
Zelenskyy warned Friday against repeating the 1945 Yalta Conference, where Allied leaders negotiated Europe’s postwar order shortly before the Soviet Union tightened its grip on Eastern Europe.
“We don’t want to have Yalta 2.0,” Zelenskyy told CNN. “We don’t want to be divided by Russia. For me, it’s not simple and it can be dangerous.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday, ahead of a G7 meeting in Paris, that talks about Europe’s post-war architecture were already under way.
“It’s one of the key topics that’s been raised repeatedly in every conversation, anytime negotiations have been discussed,” Rubio said. “So I think that’s what the president is alluding to, is that there’s been some advances made and what that architecture could look like post-conflict. We obviously have to get past the conflict to get to that point.”
Breedlove questioned whether Ukraine and European governments would accept any broader deal struck without them at the table.
“I do expect that when we get a peek under the hood of what Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump have devised that there may be European partners and allies to include Ukraine that may or may not be enthralled with the proposed solution,” he said. “We have always said nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. Neither have we heard anything about the EU or NATO being in this conversation. And yet the EU, NATO and Ukraine are central and the heart of the matter that apparently is going to be discussed.”
Divisions over direct outreach to Moscow
Tensions within Europe grew after Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a rare 90-minute phone call with Putin on October 27, according to reports.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized such separate initiatives, saying: “I think Europe should stick together rather than going solo.”
Breedlove took the opposite view, defending the calls.
“The two calls that recently took place between Northern leaders in the NATO alliance and Russia, I don’t think that they’re out of place at all. I think they’re entirely appropriate,” he said. “The great powers of Europe are getting very concerned that someone is dealing with their security without including them in the conversation.”
France confirmed it will join the Abu Dhabi talks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Sunday, according to Reuters: “The Europeans will be well represented; France will be in Abu Dhabi to take part in these discussions.”
Breedlove said any deal that forces European nations to give up security guarantees to satisfy Moscow would meet strong resistance.
“If the maximalist demands of Russia remain intact and in order to find peace, all the rest of Europe has to give up its security, sacrifice its security, make itself more susceptible to Russian attack, then this is not going to go well,” he said. “Putin has never been a partner for peace in Ukraine. Putin is not now a partner for peace in Ukraine. The EU nations, the NATO nations, and Ukraine are not going to sign up to a plan that suggests that Russia will be able to once again amass its armies, march across borders and intervene in its neighbors’ internal business. We need to understand that we are in a war. Mr. Putin is at war with the West.”
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