Ukraine is the biggest and most consequential of all the American betrayals | Simon Tisdall

<p>As the war enters its fifth year, it’s time for Europe to take the fight to Putin on its own terms and tell Trump to get lost</p><p>Viewed from Europe, the US’s failure to defend the people of Ukraine against Russian aggression is the greatest and most consequential of a host of recent American betrayals. It’s not just the sickening subservience shown to Vladimir Putin, an indicted war criminal and mass killer. It’s not only the victim-blaming and bullying of Kyiv into making concessions. It’s not even Donald Trump’s crass attempts to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn527pz54neo">monetise the war</a> and milk the misery of millions for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/09/trump-nobel-peace-prize">Nobel glory</a>, while undercutting Nato allies and trampling sovereign rights.</p><p>What really shocks, and hurts, is the sheer bad faith shown by a country that Europeans always counted a friend. As the 18th-century English gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe noted, “few circumstances are more afflicting than a discovery of perfidy in those whom we have trusted”. To echo Trump’s dark warning after he was rebuffed over Greenland: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/21/davos-2026-trump-greenland-rules-out-force-part-north-america">Europe will remember.</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/ukraine-us-betrayal-donald-trump-vladimir-putin">Continue reading...</a>