Brussels, Belgium Donald Trump's defence chief denied on Thursday that the US President was betraying Ukraine by opening talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin. European powers expressed their anger at being kept in the dark over the matter. Trump is facing accusations of seeking to betray Ukraine, a country which has been invaded and occupied by Russia since 2014 by announcing he would speak to its strongman President Putin without consulting European partners. But Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied there was any betrayal going on. President Trump is not betraying anybody, Mattis said at a news conference in California, where he was visiting a military base. He has already been betrayed if he thought that Ukraine and Georgia would be comfortable with the United States walking away from our commitment to them. European powers meanwhile insisted they must be consulted over any talks with Russia on eastern Europe and expressed their anger at being kept in the dark so far. It is absolutely unacceptable not to take us into account, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. We have had no indication. It's simply not possible that we should be able to know nothing about this. Germany was also concerned, said the spokeswoman for its Foreign Ministry, Maria Adebahr. I can't understand that there hasn't been any coordination, she added.

Brussels, Belgium Donald Trump's defence chief denied on Thursday that the US President was betraying Ukraine by opening talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin. European powers expressed their anger at being kept in the dark over the matter. Trump is facing accusations of seeking to betray Ukraine, a country which has been invaded and occupied by Russia since 2014 by announcing he would speak to its strongman President Putin without consulting European partners. But Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied there was any betrayal going on. President Trump is not betraying anybody, Mattis said at a news conference in California, where he was visiting a military base. He has already been betrayed if he thought that Ukraine and Georgia would be comfortable with the United States walking away from our commitment to them. European powers meanwhile insisted they must be consulted over any talks with Russia on eastern Europe and expressed their anger at being kept in the dark so far. It is absolutely unacceptable not to take us into account, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. We have had no indication. It's simply not possible that we should be able to know nothing about this. Germany was also concerned, said the spokeswoman for its Foreign Ministry, Maria Adebahr. I can't understand that there hasn't been any coordination, she added.