Vance to Meet With Zelenskyy  02/14 07:08

   Vance is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later 
Friday for talks that many observers, particularly in Europe, hope will shed at 
least some light on Trump's ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war.

   MUNICH (AP) -- Vice President JD Vance hammered home the U.S. demand that 
the NATO alliance step up defense spending on Friday, ahead of a security 
meeting in Europe at a time of intense concern and uncertainty over the Trump 
administration's foreign policy.

   The future of Ukraine is the top item on the agenda at the Munich Security 
Conference following a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and 
Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, when they pledged to work together to 
end the 3-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict.

   Vance is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later 
Friday for talks that many observers, particularly in Europe, hope will shed at 
least some light on Trump's ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war.

   NATO defense spending

   Vance started his day in Munich meeting separately with NATO 
Secretary-General Mark Rutte, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and 
British foreign secretary David Lammy. He used the engagements to reiterate the 
Republican Trump administration's call for NATO members to spend more on 
defense. Currently, 23 of NATO's 32 member nations are hitting the Western 
military alliance's target of spending 2% of the nation's GDP on defense.

   "NATO is a very important military alliance, of course, that we're the most 
significant part of," Vance told Rutte. "But we want to make sure that NATO is 
actually built for the future, and we think a big part of that is ensuring that 
NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can 
focus on some of our challenges in East Asia."

   Rutte said he agreed that Europe needs to step up. "We have to grow up in 
that sense and spend much more," he said.

   Chernobyl drone strike

   Hours before Vance and Zelenskyy were set to meet, a Russian drone with a 
high-explosive warhead hit the protective confinement shell of the Chernobyl 
Nuclear Power Plant in the Kyiv region, the Ukrainian president said. Radiation 
levels have not increased, Zelenskyy and the U.N. atomic agency said.

   Zelenskyy in Munich told reporters that he thinks the Chernobyl drone strike 
is a "very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation to the security 
conference."

   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday denied Ukraine's claims. And 
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Munich organizers 
haven't invited Russia for several years, a decision she called "strange and 
politicized."

   U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was supposed to join Vance and Zelenskyy 
but was delayed when his Air Force plane had to return to Washington after 
developing a mechanical problem en route to Munich. He took a different 
aircraft, but it was unclear whether he would arrive in time for the meeting.

   Trump, who upended years of steadfast U.S. support for Ukraine during his 
call with Putin on Wednesday, has been vague about his specific intentions -- 
other than suggesting that a deal will likely result in Ukraine being forced to 
cede territory that Russia has seized since it annexed Crimea in 2014.

   "The Ukraine war has to end," Trump told reporters Thursday. "Young people 
are being killed at levels that nobody's seen since World War II. And it's a 
ridiculous war."

   Ukraine's bid to join NATO

   Trump's musings have left Europeans in a quandary, wondering how -- or even 
if -- they can maintain the post-WWII security that NATO afforded them or fill 
the gap in the billions of dollars of security assistance that the Democratic 
Biden administration provided to Ukraine since Russia's February 2022 invasion.

   Trump has been highly skeptical of that aid and is expected to cut or 
otherwise limit it as negotiations get underway in the coming days.

   Both Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week undercut 
Ukraine's hopes of becoming part of NATO, which the alliance said less than a 
year ago was "irreversible," or of getting back its territory captured by 
Russia, which currently occupies close to 20% including Crimea.

   "I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position could allow ... 
them to join NATO," Trump said Thursday. "I don't see that happening."

   But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Zelenskyy on Friday that 
Ukraine must be allowed to join NATO.

   Trump in recent days said he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to 
gain access to the country's rare earth materials as a condition for continuing 
U.S. support for Ukraine's defense against Russia. He confirmed earlier this 
week that aides were working toward striking such a deal.

   Asked Friday if a deal might be completed in Munich, Vance responded, "We'll 
see."

   Possible sanctions against Russia

   Vance, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, said that the U.S. 
would hit Moscow with sanctions and potentially military action if Putin won't 
agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv's long-term 
independence.

   The warning that military options "remain on the table" was striking 
language from a Trump administration that's repeatedly underscored a desire to 
quickly end the war.

   Zelenskyy won't accept agreements made without Ukraine

   The U.S. reassurances may have somewhat allayed Zelenskyy's fears, although 
they will not replace any lost military or economic support that President Joe 
Biden's administration had provided.

   The Ukrainian leader conceded Thursday that it was "not very pleasant" that 
Trump spoke first to Putin. But he said the main issue was to "not allow 
everything to go according to Putin's plan."

   "We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreements (made) 
without us," Zelenskyy said as he visited a nuclear power plant in western 
Ukraine.

   European turning point

   The track Trump is taking also has rocked Europe, much as his dismissive 
comments about France and Germany did during his first term.

   French Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Haddad described Europe as being at 
a turning point, with the ground shifting rapidly under its feet, and said 
Europe must wean itself off its reliance on the United States for its security. 
He warned that handing a victory to Russia in Ukraine could have repercussions 
in Asia, too.

   "I think we're not sufficiently grasping the extent to which our world is 
changing. Both our competitors and our allies are busy accelerating," Haddad 
told broadcaster France Info on Thursday.