[jfman]

I guess the question is really whether you view Ukraine as economically, politically or in any military sense (NATO membership) Europe as defined in any kind of post-1945 order. Self-evidently the Biden administration did not, hence being willing to sacrifice it on the battlefield in a war of attrition that you’d never see with Brits, Germans or even Turks. Also self-evidently the Trump administration also does not - merely a useful buffer zone between Poland and Russia.

I’m more than happy with my great powers lens. You don’t get the same optics comparing meetings like that between Rubio, Lavrov and their respective delegations around grand tables with anyone else. You get Starmer and his coalition of the willing at school desks arranged like three sides of a square.

Europe is being successfully mugged for defence spending by the US. Nothing has actually materially changed in respect of whether there is an actual threat from Russia to the European - EU, NATO, etc. borders.