From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily.

A few days ago, the Trump administration began blowing up America's existing approach to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, by embracing Russia and snubbing Ukraine.

And that shift has quickly turned into a broader assault on America's relationship with Europe.

Today, Moscow bureau chief Anton Troinovsky on how it's all adding up to a stunning victory

for Vladimir Putin and a major setback for the once ironclad

alliance between the U.S. and Europe.

It's Monday, February 17th.

So, Anton, during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to end the war in Ukraine.

And this past week, he has turned his attention to that conflict, but in a way that has been really scrambling the picture, not just for Ukraine, not just for Russia, but really for all of Europe.

So tell us what that has looked like from your perspective.

I mean, it's been a really extraordinary week when it comes to the Ukraine war, the transatlantic relationship, and us kind of all discovering what Trump's second term in office is really going to

mean in terms of foreign policy because it already feels so different from his first term.

The first hint that something was going to change came early last week when surprisingly

the Russians released Mark Fogel, an American school

teacher who had been in jail in Russia.

To get him out, Steve Whitkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, actually flew to Moscow and then

later brought him home on his plane.

That was the first time that a senior American official had traveled to Russia since before the war.

So that was the first thing that happened.

Then on Wednesday, Trump speaks to Putin on the phone.

It was a 90-minute call, according to the Russians. And just the mere fact of

this call was really remarkable. It was the first time that we know of that an American president

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