European Union (EU) leaders on March 6 supported plans to increase defense spending and said they would stand with Ukraine after the Trump administration froze military aid.
On March 3, the Trump administration suspended military aid to Kyiv following a clash between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House days prior. Zelesnkyy has since said he would return to discussions on a minerals deal with the United States in exchange for continued aid.
The leaders of the 27-nation bloc celebrated the European Commission’s proposals this week to offer them financial assistance on defense spending, and to jointly borrow up to $160 billion for individual EU governments to fund their militaries.
“Europe must take up this challenge, this arms race. And it must win it,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the summit. “Europe as a whole is truly capable of winning any military, financial, economic confrontation with Russia—we are simply stronger.”
The leaders urged their governments to review these plans in detail quickly.
There are also fears that Russia may attack an EU country next, and Europe may no longer be able to rely on the United States to intervene.
“I want to believe that the United States will stand by us. But we have to be ready if that is not the case,” French President Emmanuel Macron said during an address to the French people on the summit’s eve.
He said that Russia had become a threat to the whole European continent, which drew scrutiny from Moscow.
All but one member state—Hungary, whose leader Victor Orban is an ally of Trump—joined in a statement supporting Ukraine.
Orban, in a letter to European Council President and summit host Antonio Costa, said there were “strategic differences in our approach to Ukraine that cannot be bridged.”
The 26 remaining EU leaders stated that negotiations on Ukraine cannot proceed without Ukraine and promised to continue aid, according to a draft of the statement.
“We are here to defend Ukraine,” Costa said.
Decades of reliance on U.S. military protection have left Europe in a difficult position to fill the void, as Washington accounted for more than 40 percent of Ukraine’s total military aid last year, according to NATO.
With some of that tough to replace quickly, some leaders remained hopeful that the Trump administration could change course.
“We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that U.S. support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years because Ukraine is also dependent on their support for its defense,” Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
Zelenskyy had previously called on EU leaders to back a “truce for missiles, bombs, and long-range drones” between Russian and Ukrainian air and sea forces, but that was not directly addressed in the summit statement.
The Ukrainian president said it would be an opportunity to test Russia’s desire to end its three-year invasion.
