Donald Trump cedes to Russia on Ukraine, but the bigger victim may be Nato

US President Donald Trump’s siding with Russia in its war against Ukraine not only imperils the former Soviet republic, but also may undermine eight decades of transatlantic security and force Europe to go it alone.

Trump’s new Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made his first trip in that role to the headquarters of Nato in Brussels this week and on Wednesday delivered arguably the most stark message ever to that body: the United States would no longer serve as guarantor of European security.

The statement shattered the fundamental principle on which the organisation was founded and that has sustained relative peace in much of the world since World War II. It holds that an attack against any single member is an attack against all, a tenet invoked only once: when European nations came to the assistance of the United States after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Trump meanwhile was on the telephone to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agreeing that their two countries would “work closely” to end the devastating war started nearly three years ago when Putin invaded neighbouring Ukraine.

The conflict has killed tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people. Most of the Russian dead are soldiers, while civilians make up a large part of Ukrainian deaths.