Appeals for unity are a common refrain at EU summits, often issued at 3 a.m. by exhausted Brussels officials as they desperately try to broker a deal between the 27 member states.
But this time it was the Ukrainian president’s turn to deliver a message at a gathering of EU leaders on Thursday and a NATO meeting the previous evening. “It is very important that the voice of Europe be a united voice,” Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters. “And it is united with America,” he stressed.
The European Union – which, along with Western allies, has spent more than €100 billion ($103.6 billion) arming and aiding Kiev since Russia launched a full-scale invasion nearly three years ago – reiterated its resolve. Facing an important test.
Get it together, Europe
The return of the notoriously unpredictable Donald Trump to the White House next month will certainly shake up transatlantic relations, especially when it comes to Western support for Ukraine. Republican Trump is vowing to end the war immediately, though he has not outlined his plan.
Trump has repeatedly hinted that he might reduce support for Ukraine and push Zelensky toward a peace deal. People close to Trump have suggested that Ukraine should permanently annex eastern areas already held by Russia and abandon its ambitions to join NATO. Both possibilities are highly unlikely to fly in Kiev.
Zelensky remained positive when asked about his thoughts on Trump taking office. “Welcome, Donald!” He said. “What should I say?”
“I think President Trump is a strong person and I want to have him on my side,” he said.
Zelensky has good reason to tread carefully; Trump has also hinted that he may cut military aid. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy has calculated that without the new US aid package, the West’s total military aid next year could fall from an estimated €59 billion to €34 billion.
On Thursday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas spoke out against pressuring Kiev to talk to Moscow. “Any pressure for negotiations too soon would actually be a bad deal for Ukraine,” he said. “All the other actors in the world are watching carefully how we act in this matter and so we need to be really strong.”
The question of EU peacekeeping forces remains divisive
Within the EU, leaders have also been considering in recent weeks how to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the future. French President Emmanuel Macron, who was absent from the Brussels meeting due to the crisis in the cyclone-hit French overseas territory of Mayotte, has reportedly raised the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers after the conflict ends.
But several leaders, including Polish President Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schuof, have called such talks premature.
“I think it is completely inappropriate that some people are now discussing what should be done as a third and fourth phase,” Chancellor Scholz said Thursday.
“We are now thinking about whether it will happen soon. For the moment, continued support for Ukraine is important here. There is a clear path that the war does not escalate, that it does not escalate into a war between Russia and NATO,” he said.
One dissenting voice was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the EU prime minister with the warmest relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Orbán on Thursday called for a ceasefire by Christmas – something Zelenskyy said he was not considering.
European support alone won’t cut it, Zelensky warns
For his part, Zelensky made clear that he sees NATO membership as the only option to keep Ukraine secure in the long term. Moscow has long been intensely opposed to joining the former Soviet state’s Cold War-era rival, the Western military alliance.
“I believe that European guarantees will not be enough for Ukraine,” Zelensky said after meeting with EU leaders. “It is impossible to discuss this only with European leaders, because for us, in any case – today or in the future – the real guarantee is NATO,” he said.
“On the way to NATO, we want security guarantees while we are not in NATO. And we can discuss such guarantees separately with both the US and Europe,” Zelensky said, as well as the idea of ultimately looking to European Also expressed cautious support. Peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.
In a statement more than 1,000 days into the conflict, the EU pledged to provide continued political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as and as intensely as needed. Reaffirmed his unwavering commitment. ,
the moment of truth approaches
Analysts have been warning for months that the EU must prepare to raise its game in the coming months.
Timothy Garton Ash, historian for the European Council of Foreign Relations, wrote, “Ukraine is likely to be the first casualty of Donald Trump’s second term as US president. The only people who can avert that disaster are we Europeans, then Our continent is also in disarray.” Think Tank last month.
Garton Ash warned, “Unless Europe can somehow rise to the challenge, not only Ukraine but the entire continent will remain weak, divided and angry as we enter a new and dangerous period of European history.”
Edited by: John Silk