Rutte now helps coordinate outside security assistance to Ukraine, a new responsibility given to NATO by the Biden Administration in an attempt to Trump-proof aid. European and Canadian NATO allies have so far this year given more than the estimated $20 billion the U.S. provided in 2024. A German military officer involved in providing support to Ukraine told Reuters that, if necessary, Europe can sustain Ukrainian resistance alone.
But the war in Ukraine has also underscored the limits of Rutte’s power. Almost a year ago, NATO members agreed to an “irreversible path” for Ukraine to join the alliance. Rutte finds himself in the middle. On the one hand, he says the deal with Kyiv is “still standing,” but he adds, to the disappointment of Ukrainian officials, that it “doesn’t mean that membership is part of a peace deal.”
That’s another delicate issue. Rutte has publicly backed the peace talks that grew out of Trump’s view of himself as a dealmaker, and have at times raised alarm among others in NATO. The “Trump Administration’s approach has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia,” the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said in April before resigning. Rutte says that the U.S. President is “doing exactly what he needs to do. I really commend him for that. Because he broke the deadlock and is constantly engaging with Ukraine and Russia.”
