Ukraine update

NPR - European leaders have called an emergency meeting in Paris today after they were cut out of negotiations set to be held in the coming days by high-level U.S. and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The emergency meeting, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, will include leaders of Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark.

The meeting’s agenda includes increasing military spending and authorizing massive lending, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley says. This comes after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. has more significant priorities in Asia and Europe should take care of itself. Last week, Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone and proposed lifting sanctions and bringing Russia back into the fold of nations. Elie Tenenbaum, a security expert at the French Institute for International Relations, says that without European allies at the negotiation table, the U.S. might strongarm Ukraine into a bad deal with Russia.