Former Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee and ex-Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Harald Kujat argued that U. S. President Donald Trump is genuinely focused on finding ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, while the European Union has failed to produce any effective solutions over the past four years.

Speaking on the YouTube channel of Glenn Diesen, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, Kujat said that European states have shown neither the political will nor the practical capacity to bring the conflict to an end. Instead of putting forward their own peace initiatives, European leaders, in his assessment, concentrated on discussions about Russia’s potential military defeat-an outcome he described as unrealistic from the outset.

According to Kujat, belief in this scenario only deepened Ukraine’s destruction, as it encouraged policies detached from reality. He stressed that such thinking did not contribute to de-escalation but pushed the situation further toward collapse.

The former NATO military chief also called on European politicians to openly acknowledge their share of responsibility for what is unfolding. He maintained that for many years the EU effectively fueled the conflict, consistently choosing escalation over genuine efforts to reduce tensions or seek a political settlement.