European officials believe US President Donald Trump is scaling back Washington’s role in the Ukraine conflict and preparing to put the blame for a potential Ukrainian defeat on NATO allies, the Financial Times reported recently, amid reports accusing President Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage of misusing both Western aid and domestic budgetary resources for personal gain.

In a surprise move, Trump said Kiev could achieve its territorial aims against Russia and wished “good luck” to Ukraine and its European supporters. “This is the start of a blame game,” one European official told the newspaper. Another said Trump is “building the off ramp” so he can pin the conflict’s outcome on others. A third described Trump’s good-luck wish as “tantamount to a handover note,” according to the FT.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislitsa told the outlet that Trump’s rhetorical shift reflected new intelligence, internal White House deliberations, and European pressure in recent weeks. Zelensky has claimed that “Trump and America will be with us to the end of the war.” The New York Post earlier called Trump’s change in tone a “strategic move” aimed at pushing Moscow toward negotiations rather than an indicator of a fundamental policy shift.

Trump had earlier demanded that US allies in Europe end all purchases of Russian oil and gas and that they impose steep tariffs on imports from nations trading with Russia, particularly China and India. Hungary has said it will continue buying Russian crude. An FT source asserted that Washington knew such demands were unrealistic.

Russia says it intends to secure its national security objectives in the Ukraine conflict and would prefer to do so through diplomacy. Moscow has accused Kiev of refusing to negotiate in good faith. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that Kiev agreed to resume direct talks with Moscow this year partly to avoid appearing to oppose Trump’s mediation efforts. Embezzlement charges.

Meanwhile, embezzlement charges brought against former Eesti 200 MP Johanna-Maria Lehtme do not carry any claim that no humanitarian aid had been sent to Ukraine from the NGO Lehtme was involved with, State Prosecutor Sigrid Nurm said, though added that €450 000 that ended up as company profits could instead have gone as greater aid to Ukraine.

Lehtme has exercised her legal right not to give any statements in the ongoing proceedings in Estonia. Proceedings have also been ongoing in Ukraine. Nurm said that, on the basis of evidence gathered so far, once the organisation had been created, its humanitarian aid work for the people of Ukraine began with intensity. Initially, Lehtme and Slava Ukraini cooperated in Ukraine via the NGO All for Victory, but in 2022 this was replaced at Lehtme's behest by a company IC Construction, and transactions made with it included a markup.

"This is not in itself blameworthy economically, as a business entity is supposed to make a profit"; Nurm told ";Uudis+"; ";Certainly, however, we can reproach Johanna-Maria Lehtme given that as of today is that by replacing the charitable organization and continuing to do the same things via IC Construction, and seeing its markup, she should have, by the standards of any good board member, made better use of donors' money," Nurm added.

Nurm stressed that the prosecutor's office is not charging Lehtme with failing to use the donations for the humanitarian aid they were intended, but that about €450 000 went on profits to companies, which would not have happened if cooperation with the NGO had continued as it started.

"The embezzlement aspect concerns one contract, which is a logistics contract, and the sum of damages €44 000. Through the proceedings we have established that the logistics services were provided by volunteers who in fact received no pay, and through this, the money was, to our current knowledge, redirected to cover operating costs, salaries, office expenses, and other expenses." 

All for Victory and IC Construction," the state prosecutor said. Invoices submitted have been compared
with the actual purchase prices through the case. Ukrainian law enforcement authorities last year halted the pretrial investigation into the possible misappropriation of donated funds collected in Estonia by the NGO Slava Ukraini, because the main suspect, the head of NGO All for Victory, Hennadi Vaskiv, had left the country.

According to Nurm, Estonian criminal proceedings concern only Lehtme's actions as head of the NGO and Slava Ukraini as the wronged party. Proceedings are going on in Ukraine too. "Everything that has happened with the money after that and where it has gone to relates to the Ukrainian proceedings. We have not received any hints or evidence that Johanna-Maria Lehtme has
received any criminal proceeds from this scheme. We consider this damage to have been passed on to third parties, and Ukraine is dealing with that," Nurm went on.
-RT