WASHINGTON — European leaders will seek to salvage what’s left of their traditional alliances on Monday with a two-pronged strategy aimed at keeping U.S. President Donald Trump on their side and saving Ukraine from being sacrificed to Vladimir Putin.
After a week spent reeling from one shock statement after another from the U.S. administration, European governments are trying to regain the initiative.
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington for talks with Trump on Monday, where he will argue that letting President Putin win in Ukraine would be “a huge strategic mistake,” he said in comments ahead of the trip.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to follow with a White House meeting on Thursday, after saying the U.K. would be “ready and willing” to put U.K. troops on the ground in Ukraine as a security guarantee in a peace deal.
The third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday may help focus minds as Moscow’s forces continue to make advances on the battlefield and the U.S. pushes for a swift end to the war.
“Enough talking, it’s time to act!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X last week, calling for bold action from Europeans, including using frozen Russian assets to finance aid to Ukraine and strengthening air defenses along EU borders with Russia. Tusk, one of the European leaders who can claim a solid relationship with Trump, has sought to ease tensions between Washington and Kyiv.
As Macron sits down to talks with Trump, the European Union and its closest allies will be staging a show of force in Kyiv on Monday, designed to signal that the bloc stands firmly behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even as the White House turns against him and aligns with Russia’s talking points.
The delegation converging on Ukraine’s war-torn capital will include not only the EU’s top officials — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa — but also the leaders of Spain, the Nordic and Baltic countries and several others, including NATO members not in the EU.
Amid preparations for their trip, leaders are working on a package of military support for Ukraine that’s expected to be worth at least €20 billion, according to several diplomats who have been briefed on the EU’s efforts. The bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has asked each EU country to review their military inventories to see what they can give to Kyiv, with an emphasis on artillery shells, air defenses, training and equipment for Ukraine’s brigades.
Foremost in the minds of Europeans this week is the need to strengthen Europe’s hand, show support for Ukraine, and manage difficult interactions with the Trump administration, just as the relationship between Washington and Kyiv sours.
“We need to internalize that [Trump] can take radically hostile decisions if he’s offended,” said a European diplomat, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.
“We need … to build a security plan for Europe at a time when public opinion isn’t ready. And you can’t do that and manage the withdrawal of some 100,000 American soldiers out of Europe. That is why we can’t break [with Trump],” the diplomat added.
As Europeans desperately try to keep all sides talking and to shoehorn themselves into negotiations between Washington and Moscow that have so far excluded them, the U.S. president has made clear that time is running short. Trump and his top aides have continued a pressure campaign against Zelenskyy, determined to force Ukraine’s leader into signing an economic pact that would give Washington a major stake in the country’s economic future.
Trump is “very confident” the Ukraine deal could get done this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Saturday. That has left Europe racing against the clock to come up with security guarantees that don’t rely on the U.S.
“The United States has thrown down the gauntlet, and the right response is to throw it back with a set of plans on how to respond, and [the Europeans] haven’t done it yet,” said Ivo Daalder, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama. “They still have a few weeks to figure it out, but the panic and disagreements so far have just underscored the idea that Europe can’t get its act together — even when challenged at its most fundamental core by an ally no longer acting like an ally.”
White House tête-à-tête
Macron’s lightning visit to Washington will be seen as an acid test of his diplomatic skills, with Europe desperately hoping for a shift back to normalcy in transatlantic relations. That job got even harder on Friday when Trump accused the French president of “giving nothing” to Ukraine and failing to try to end the war, in an interview with Fox News.
French diplomats hope that Macron will be able to convince Trump that trading with and defending Europe remains in America’s interest. The French leader, who during Trump’s first term catered to his vanity by hosting him for military parades and private lunches, spent last week in a frenzy of consultations and summits with allies in Paris.
“The president is one of the rare leaders who has real experience [with Trump] and who worked closely with Trump during his first mandate,” said a French presidential aide.
Macron said last week that he would tell Trump his overtures to Russia’s Putin will backfire. “I’m going to tell him: ‘You can’t be weak with President Putin. That’s not who you are, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest’,” Macron said Thursday in a Q&A on the internet.
According to another Macron aide, the French president will arrive in Washington with some “action proposals” that have been discussed with other European leaders, including the United Kingdom.
As the European leader who has been the most outspoken about the continental imperative of lessening reliance on Washington, Macron may have more credibility in assuring Trump that Europe is increasingly serious about beefing up defense spending. Whether those promises or new commitments to additional bilateral trade will be enough to placate Trump and buy Europe more time to agree on a plan for Ukraine and the continent’s collective defense remains to be seen.
During a speech Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, Trump spoke of America’s interest in Ukraine as if he were a lender collecting on a payment long past due — instead of a traditional American president proclaiming an intent to defend democracy around the globe.
“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up,” Trump said. “We’re asking for rare earths and oil, anything we can get. But we feel so stupid. It affects Europe. It doesn’t really affect us.”
New transatlantic reality
Macron’s proposals to Trump likely include one to deploy a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine in the case of a negotiated cease-fire with Russia. According to one EU diplomat, Ukraine’s allies want to create a “counterforce” to the Russian narrative on Ukraine and “show that we have things to offer.”
“This includes a European contribution of some 30,000 troops, with the U.K. and France taking the lead there,” the EU diplomat said.
According to Mika Aaltola, a Finnish conservative lawmaker in the European Parliament, Europe must send a “coordinated” message on Ukraine and EU defense given misgivings about the true direction of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Europe more broadly.
“It started in Munich [at the Munich Security Conference], the whole adventure of U.S. policy realignment. Then it was reinforced by information [that] different actors received in Riyadh [during U.S.-Russia talks] and what was actually discussed there,” Aaltola said in a phone interview. “There is a Pentagon review on U.S. troops, and part of that is the American presence in Europe. When you put this together with the fact that they are talking with the Russians, it leads to questions about what is actually going to happen.”
Standing alongside Ukrainians in Kyiv on Monday, European leaders hope to strengthen Ukraine’s position in eventual peace talks with Russia and demonstrate the EU’s autonomy from the Trump administration on this question, according to several EU diplomats and officials. Consultations on the expected €20 billion military package, including what can be donated and the total value, were ongoing.
More broadly, there is growing concern among countries on Europe’s border with Russia — from Finland to the Baltic states, Poland and Romania — about Washington’s long-term commitment to keeping troops in the neighborhood and enforcing NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense provision.
While the U.S. hasn’t explicitly flagged a reduction in troops, one EU diplomat said this remained a near-term concern amid chaotic statements from the U.S. administration.
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