President Trump’s first major moves toward peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are unsettling Republicans in the Senate who want to make sure Russian President Vladimir Putin faces consequences for launching an unprovoked invasion into his European neighbor.
Even as growing partisanship weakens U.S. support for Ukraine, a core of Republican allies in the Senate are uncomfortable with the early contours of Trump’s approach.
“I know he [Trump] is trying to make a deal to save lives. It may not be the approach that I would take,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), adding that he wants to give Trump “the opportunity to try to make peace there.”
“There are concerns I think all of us have that Russia be recognized for the aggressor that they are.”
Trump and his Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, made waves on Wednesday with comments that broke starkly with U.S. policy under former President Biden, who moved in lockstep with NATO and major European partners.
Rejecting diplomatic convention, Trump called Putin before calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a snub that signaled favor toward Moscow. Hegseth said Ukraine should not expect to join NATO as a result of peace talks, nor to claw back the Crimean Peninsula and other territory it lost in 2014, both seen as key components of a potential deal.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who occasionally bucks Trump’s positions and is strongly aligned with Kyiv, said she is concerned about Ukraine’s fate.
“This was an unprovoked, unjustified invasion. I appreciate that the president is trying to achieve peace, but we have to make sure that Ukraine does not get the short end of a deal,” she said.
Zelensky said it was “not pleasant” to learn that Trump called Putin first, and he rejected the idea of a deal negotiated without Ukraine. Europe too said it must have a seat at the table to negotiate a lasting peace on the continent.
“Ukraine ought to be the one to negotiate its own peace deal. I don’t think it should be imposed upon it by any other country, including ours. I’m hopeful,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member.
“I can’t imagine President Trump giving up leverage,” Cornyn continued. “I don’t know what his strategy is for negotiating, but he’s pretty good at it. I think it surprises people, including me, sometimes what he’s able to pull off. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
Hegseth shocked Ukrainian and European partners with his comments on Wednesday and seemed to walk some of them back at a news conference in Munich on Thursday, saying negotiations will be undertaken at the presidential level.
“Everything is on the table in his conversations with Vladimir Putin and Zelensky,” Hegseth said.
“What he decides to allow or not allow is at the purview of the leader of the free world, of President Trump,” he continued. “So I’m not going to stand at this podium and declare what President Trump will do or won’t do.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow considers the U.S. to be its main counterpart in negotiations over ending the war in Ukraine, Meduza reported. Moscow frames its war against Ukraine as a larger battle with the democratic West.
Even though Putin has described Ukraine joining NATO as a red line in any talks, the Biden administration, along with Europe and Ukraine’s leaders, have refused to take it off the table, saying Ukraine should have a path to eventually join the alliance.
Multiple Senate Republicans indicated that they did not believe taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table altered talks in any way for now.
They were quick to argue that despite the goals of Ukrainian leaders to gain NATO admittance, it was highly unlikely to take place in the near term, especially given the ongoing war and NATO countries’ reluctance to directly engage in the current conflict.
“I think President Zelensky knows it’s a long time and they should be focused on getting into the [European Union] first, and then lay the groundwork for getting NATO accession sometime over the next decade,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), an ardent Ukraine backer.
“We just can’t suddenly put people in NATO and take our Article 5 commitment seriously,” he continued. “I mean, we’re talking about putting American troops at risk. We need to solve this, de-escalate. They need to address reforms, then we can talk about NATO.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a top Trump World ally, went a step further.
“I don’t think anybody really believes Ukraine should be in NATO now,” Schmitt said. “Unless you want World War III.”
Even Ukraine’s supporters have largely conceded that any decisions on NATO ascension would come as part of a deal to end the war, so as not to immediately trigger the Article 5 mutual defense pact.
The Senate GOP conference is increasingly isolationist, a trend that threatens a core group of Ukraine supporters.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has worked closely with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Ukraine’s proposal to use its deposits of critical minerals and rare earth elements as enticement for Trump’s support. The president said he wants $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s deposits to pay back U.S. military and economic assistance.
Blumenthal said his Republican colleagues privately expressed “dismay and disdain” at Trump’s overtures to Putin, but he would not name who spoke with him.
“I think what’s needed now is really bipartisan support for Ukraine, militarily and economically, and I’m hoping that we can forge, redouble the coalition that we have very painstakingly built over the last years.”
Lawmakers and national security experts are debating what kind of deal Trump might be angling for, and how much land Ukraine might be asked to give up.
“The big question is territorial integrity,” said Victoria Coates, who served as deputy national security adviser during the first Trump administration.
“I have heard signaling that they [Ukraine] are in that maximalist position, they need this to be accompanied by credible assurances that whatever Russia gets in this process, is all that Russia is going to get,” said Coates, who is vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukrainian land. Ukraine grabbed a small pocket of Russian territory in the Kursk Oblast during an offensive in August. Zelensky recently proposed territory swaps with Russia but did not get into specifics.
But Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) suggested a full territorial swap — signaling how Congress, and Republicans in particular, can demonstrate their support for Kyiv.
“A land swap between War Criminal Putin and Ukraine to end the war is a FAIR DEAL,” Wilson wrote on the social platform X. Putin is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
“Ukrainian-occupied Russian territory for Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.”
Wilson also introduced legislation to reauthorize the Ukraine lend-lease program, which provides the U.S. the ability to deliver military equipment to the country and be repaid later.
“We must give President Trump the authority to MASSIVELY & QUICKLY arm Ukraine with war-winning weapons to get Russia to the table. Peace through Strength!”
