DONALD Trump will withdraw US troops from Nato’s front line with Russia in the Baltics, a report claims.
The US president is looking to pull American forces out of parts of Europe as he pivots its military might towards China.
It comes as Trump’s head foreign policy chiefs begin talks in Saudi Arabia with Russia over the future of Ukraine.
Trump is now considering withdrawing US troops from the Baltics and perhaps even further west, reports the Financial Times.
It is not clear whether that withdrawal would be part of a wider peace deal with Putin or something Trump wants to do independently of that.
Vladimir Putin wants all Nato forces removed from his neighbouring Western countries.
It has long been the ambition of the ruthless tyrant to roll back the expansion of Nato in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union.
European officials now believe Trump could succumb to Putin’s demand and remove the US troops stationed in the countries bordering Mad Vlad.
Three former Soviet nations – Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – would be placed in a vulnerable position as the border is much bigger than Russia.
It is not clear exactly how many US troops are stationed in the area but they publicly say around 600 are positioned in Estonia and some 1,000 in Lithuania.
Without American troops, the small Baltic nations could be easy pickings for Putin.
One possibility is envisaged as the Narva Scenario– where Vlad invades Estonia and seizes the border city of Narva.
Former Finnish general and MEP Pekka Toveri believes Trump and the West should be wary of trusting the mad dictator – warning that he could take advantage and try to break Nato’s Article 5.
Toveri told The Sun that Putin would just need to wait for a couple of years and be prepared to sacrifice another 100,000 Russians before attacking again as, in Putin’s mind, the “spineless West will give up”.
Trump repeatedly vowed to end Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine throughout his re-election campaign as he seeks to disentangle the US from foreign wars.
He wants to leave European security to European countries and focus the US’ energies on the Americas and on the Asia-Pacific region to combat China.
Trump’s possible decision to withdraw from the Baltics comes only a year after millions were spent on upgrading a permanent military base in Lithuania.
This site was set to hold 5,000 soldiers and be fully operational by 2027, but Trump’s pullback could throw this into disarray.
Trump has arranged for his foreign policy bosses to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for talks to end the war.
Zelensky has insisted Ukraine would not accept any peace deals reached without Kyiv’s involvement.
Peace measures reportedly considered by Trump include banning Kyiv from joining Nato and forcing it to declare neutrality.
Another potential clause could be Russia keeping the five regions it annexed in Ukraine – Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022.
Ukraine would also be asked to withdraw from the Kursk region of Eastern Russia.
This comes as US Defence Secretary Keith Hegseth said it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to return to its 2014 borders before Putin invaded Crimea.
Hegseth also confirmed on Wednesday that the US doesn’t want American troops to be involved in defending the country.
Trump also said he has struck a deal for $500billion worth of Ukrainian rare minerals in return for military support the US gave.
Trump told Fox News that Kyiv could decide it didn’t want to deal – but that Zelensky had agreed to trade military support for key minerals.
He said: “We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth.
“And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
Leaked documents have revealed details of a contract between the US and Ukraine marked “Privileged & Confidential”, per The Telegraph.
The terms of the $500billion “repayment” deal could hit more than Kyiv’s minerals.
A “Reconstruction Investment Fund” has supposedly been proposed to “ensure that hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
This leaked document says “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”
