EU leaders agree on defense defense, Ukraine’s Zelensky after US freezing

• The prime ministers, the presidents agree on the plan of defense spending, support for Ukraine.
• The impulse of defense was led by Russia’s fears, concerns about Trump.
• Leaders call on their ministers to urgently examine proposals in detail.
  

Brussels: European leaders on Thursday supported plans to spend more on defense and continue to stand from Ukraine in a world upgraded by the reversal of Donald Trump’s US policies.

The European Union Summit in Brussels took place amid fears that Russia, encouraged by its war in Ukraine, could attack an EU country and that Europe can no longer rely in the US to help.

“Today we have shown that the European Union is going up to the challenge, building Europe of defense and the shoulder’s shoulder attitude on the shoulder,” the president of the meeting Antonio Costa told reporters.

EU leaders welcomed the European Commission’s proposals this week to give them fiscal flexibility to defense spending and borrow up to 150 billion euros ($ 160 billion) to lend their EU governments to spend.

In a joint statement agreed by all 27 Member States, the leaders called on their ministers to urgently consider these proposals.

“Europe must take on this challenge, this race of equipment and must win it,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a special defense summit in Brussels.

“Europe as a whole is really capable of winning any military, economic, economic confrontation with Russia – we are just stronger,” Tusk said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who had told French voters on Wednesday that Russia was a threat to France and Europe, said that all this was just a first step.

“Whatever happens in Ukraine, we need to build autonomous defense capabilities in Europe,” he said after the EU summit.

Ukraine support

EU leaders also supported Ukraine, but this statement was agreed without Hungary nationalist leader Victor Orban, an ally of Trump, who also cultivates links with Moscow.

In their statement, the 26 other EU leaders stressed that there could be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine and pledged to continue to help, according to a recent plan.

“We are here to defend Ukraine,” Costa said, as he and head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, both of them widely smiling, warmly greeted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the summit, in a strong opposition to his conflict between Trumpy and Zelensky. Oval Office last week.

However, decades of dependence on US protection, deviations for funding and how France’s nuclear deterrence could be used for Europe showed how difficult it would be for the EU to fill Washington’s gap after freezing military aid in Ukraine.

Washington provided more than 40% of Military Aid to Ukraine last year, according to NATO, some of which Europe could not easily replace. Some leaders were still in hope, at least to the public, that Washington could return to the crease.

“We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that US support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years, because Ukraine also depends on their support for its defense,” said Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Macron said leaders supported Zelensky’s appeal to support the idea of ​​a truce between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the air and at sea. Zelensky told EU leaders that such a truce would be an opportunity to test Moscow’s willingness to end its three -year invasion.

Nuclear deterioration?

In a sign of the gravity of the moment, Macron said France was open to discuss the expansion of the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners.

This was treated with carefully positive reactions. Some, like Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda, said that such a “nuclear umbrella would serve as a really serious deterrence to Russia”. Poland said the idea is worth discussing, while some, such as the Czechs, stressed the need to maintain the US involved.

Trump said Europe should take more responsibility for its safety. On Thursday he questioned his willingness to defend the NATO allies of Washington, saying he would not do so unless they pay enough for their own defense.

His decision to shift from US strict support for Ukraine to a more compromise to Moscow has deeply worried Europeans who see Russia as the biggest threat.

Underlining the level of concern, the places aimed at formulating the next German government on Tuesday agreed to lift the constitutional limits for lending to defense spending.

Elsewhere in Europe, Norway will more than double its financial promise in Ukraine this year, while throwing its own defense spending, the prime minister said.