Reagan-era Republicans aghast as Trump turns Russia policy on its head

Republicans who served under President Ronald Reagan during the cold war have condemned Donald Trump’s move to soften relations with Russia and undermine the 80-year-old transatlantic alliance.

European leaders were left reeling last week when the US vice-president, JD Vance, told the Munich Security Conference that the greatest danger facing Europe was “the threat from within” and the “retreat from fundamental values”.

Fears are also growing that a meeting of the US and Russia’s top diplomats in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with no seat at the table for Ukrainian or European officials, paves the way for a capitulation to Moscow.

“It makes me sick what’s going on right now,” said Ken Adelman, a former US ambassador to the United Nations. “The Trump administration has no regard for the 80 years of Atlantic cooperation and the sovereignty of Ukraine.”