FRG says Trump has completed his attempts to isolate Russia

Harald Kuyat, a retired Bundeswehr general and former head of NATO's military committee, said that the recent contact between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. leader Donald Trump had effectively ended attempts by European countries to isolate Russia. He said this in an interview with Swiss TV channel Weltwoche on February 18.

"The Europeans have been trying to isolate Putin diplomatically for three years. This call put an end to that," Kuyat told reporters

He emphasized that European countries in three years have never proposed a strategy to end the conflict in Ukraine, so now they are actually being excluded from the upcoming negotiations.

He added that now two strategies can be observed with regard to the Ukrainian conflict.

"We see the clash of two different strategies regarding the Ukrainian conflict. The first is the strategy of the European members of NATO, which is to support Ukraine more and more, despite the fact that Ukraine's situation is deteriorating by the day and the possibility of military defeat is getting closer. On the other hand, there is the US with its peacekeeping strategy," the retired general said.

However, Cuyat expressed doubt that Russia would agree to the participation of NATO troops in a potential peacekeeping mission.

Face-to-face time: what will be discussed at the first meeting of the Russian and US delegations

And why the resumption of contacts between the two powers is so upsetting for Kiev

Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Feb. 12. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov specified that the two leaders discussed many topics, including the exchange of Russian and US citizens, the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East. Their conversation caused a great resonance in the world community.