U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Thursday that the most consequential outcome of President Donald Trump’s meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was the president’s announcement of sweeping new sanctions targeting two Russian oil companies and their subsidiaries.
Appearing on Newsmax’s “National Report,” Whitaker said the move underscored Trump’s determination to end what he called a “senseless” and “brutal” conflict in Ukraine.
“I was at the White House … for that meeting,” Whitaker said. “Very important topics were discussed, but most of it centered around President Trump’s continuing desire to end this senseless war. He talked about how thousands of people, especially soldiers on the front lines, are dying every single week.”
Whitaker emphasized that while the administration remains committed to helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty, Trump’s focus has shifted toward pressing both Moscow and Kyiv to come to the negotiating table.
“It’s just a brutal trench war that nobody is winning,” he said. “President Trump is trying to explore ways to continue the pressure on [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, continue the pressure, quite frankly, on [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and also look for new ways to continue to press, to bring both sides to the table to agree to a ceasefire, end the war, and just end the killing.”
The ambassador said Trump’s sanctions announcement was “the most important thing” to come out of Wednesday’s meeting.
“He announced also, and I think the most important thing was just these significant sanctions against two Russian oil companies and their subsidiaries who are ultimately funding the Kremlin war machine,” Whitaker explained. “And I think the good news is that then, at the same time, our European allies and NATO announced another round of sanctions as well. So, we’re making progress.”
Whitaker described the president as increasingly impatient with Putin’s refusal to de-escalate.
“He holds all the cards,” Whitaker said of Trump. “And, at the end of the day, he’s going to play those cards as he sees appropriate to continue to create the circumstances to keep Vladimir Putin at the table, to get him to negotiate, to resolve this war, because the killing has to stop. And President Trump, I think, is just really frustrated, to be quite frank with you, that Vladimir Putin won’t end this war.”
According to Whitaker, Russia’s battlefield progress over the past 10 months has been minimal despite staggering losses.
“He’s not making any strategic gains,” he said. “He continues to just enable a slaughter that’s happening on the front line with nothing to really show for it.”
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