The alliance’s summit will minimize references to either Russia or Ukraine to avoid antagonizing the U.S. president who has sided with the aggressor.

BRUSSELS: At its first summits after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO gave President Volodymyr Zelensky pride of place at its table. It won’t be the same this…

The alliance’s summit will minimize references to either Russia or Ukraine to avoid antagonizing the U.S. president who has sided with the aggressor.

The group has truncated its summit to focus on a 5% per-country spending target, something Trump supports, to avoid upsetting him.

An internal rift over defense spending and President Trump’s disregard for Ukraine have lowered expectations for the gathering.

The “why” is Russia. But at a summit focused on keeping President Trump happy, discussion of that is expected to be muted.

President Trump is expected to talk about spending commitments from the alliance’s members, while NATO’s secretary general has been eager to avoid diplomatic blowups.

The military alliance on Wednesday released a joint statement boasting of higher spending that barely mentions Russia or Ukraine in deference to Trump's pro-Putin bias.

THE HAGUE: President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit Wednesday and suggested that increased spending by the…