MUNICH --The much-anticipated Munich Security Conference (MSC) kicked off on February 14 amid swirling snowfall and intense speculation about whether it will lead to a diplomatic breakthrough that can chart a course to ending Russias war on Ukraine.

The U.S. delegation is led by Vice President JD Vance, who was expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before speaking on the main stage in the afternoon.

What was not immediately clear is whether a Russian delegation was also present. There were no Russian representatives on the official guest list.

But U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 13 that U.S. and Russian officials would meet in Munich on February 24 and that Ukraine was also invited. Trump also said this week that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kyiv has said it does not expect such talks to take place in Munich.

In any case, Munich represents a first chance for many European leaders to meet with senior officials from the new administration in Washington, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The latter already caused a stir at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels this week, declaring that under a peace deal, Ukraine could not expect to regain territory occupied by Russia or to join NATO.

Amid an anguished response from Europe, some commentators described the proposals as setting the scene for a second Munich Agreement -- a reference to the 1938 deal under which Britain and France caved to Nazi Germanys demands for swathes of Czechoslovakia.

'Appeasement' Warning

European Union Foreign Policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke this week of appeasement. French President Emmannuel Macron warned against capitulation to Russia.

Hegseth declared at a news conference in Brussels that U.S. proposals were not a betrayal. But he also gave a strong message that Europe needed to up the ante on defense spending rather than continuing to rely on American might.

This has been a consistent message from Trump for some time. Its no wonder then that one of the opening sessions on February 14 was a roundtable called Doing More With Less U.S.? Strengthening European Defense.

Another session, later on February 14, will focus on hybrid warfare in the Baltic Sea. Its another timely issue with Western countries blaming Russia for a spate of incidents affecting undersea-cable and pipeline infrastructure in recent months.

President Zelenskyy is set to appear on a mid-afternoon panel entitled The Future of U.S. - Ukraine Security Cooperation. Its a subject we may learn a lot about this weekend.