U.S.’s constant backpedaling frustrated Ukraine allies, says fmr. PM Schoof

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pointing past a grinning Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof while speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump at the start of the NATO Summit in The Hague. 24 June 2025 - Credit: - License: All Rights Reserved Politics Friday, 9 October 2026 - 14:30

Former Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof says the Trump administration’s shifting approach to Russia and Ukraine left European countries struggling to keep up. He believes this also hampered efforts by Ukraine’s allies to agree on security guarantees for the country, as the U.S. repeatedly retreated from earlier positions. Schoof made the remarks on the De Atlantische Blik podcast.

After Trump made clear that the U.S. would serve as a mediator rather than protect Ukraine, its European allies formed a “Coalition of the Willing” to help fill the gap.

However, the countries involved, including the Netherlands, were unwilling to confront Russian forces without American support. They wanted guarantees that the U.S. would back them if a confrontation occurred, but Washington’s willingness to provide that security guarantee remained uncertain for months. Meanwhile, frustration mounted over the coalition’s lack of tangible progress, with Trump himself also expressing impatience.

Schoof repeatedly thought he and the other coalition leaders were taking a real “important step,” he said on the podcast by the Atlantic Commission, which keeps the discussion about ties between Europe and the US going. “To take on part of our responsibility to protect Ukraine at the moment there would be a peace deal or a ceasefire.”

But that “slipped through our fingers every time. Because the American negotiators, including those in direct contact with the White House, sometimes made a retreating move again after previously making a forward move.”

He said this was true “in particular” of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s real estate associate and son-in-law, whom the president appointed as peace envoys.

A year ago, the coalition announced that it intended to deploy a “multinational force” to Ukraine. Since then, the focus of support has shifted away from deploying troops to providing training and weapons, with financial assistance for Ukraine’s armed forces and defense industry now taking center stage.

Reporting by ANP