The leaders of most European governments, Canada and European Union institutions began to design this Sunday a possible peace mission for Ukraine and the foundations of a future defense architecture without the United States.
“It is a historical moment for security in Europe,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, flanked by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and surrounded by more than a dozen leaders in London. “Getting a good result for Ukraine is not just a matter of what is correct and what is not: it is vital for the safety of each nation here and also for many others.”
In Lancaster House, a mansion in downtown London where the Foreign Ministers of the first 12 members of NATO met in 1950, this Sunday the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Romania and Canada sat this Sunday. Also the Foreign Minister of Türkiye, the president of the European Commission, the president of the European Council and the NATO general secretary. Several governments talked about increasing spending in defense, technology and key infrastructure to defend Europe.
“Europe has woken up,” said Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who insisted on strengthening the eastern flank of Europe and maintaining “transatlantic cooperation.”
After a dramatic week for European security, the United Kingdom and France, two military powers with nuclear deterrence, are offered to lead a “coalition” of volunteer countries to protect Ukraine while trying to maintain the relationship with Donald Trump. Starmer and Macron are working on a proposal with Zelenski to present Trump, who is negotiating directly with Russia and refuses to include Ukraine or other European countries in those conversations.
Starmer continues to convince Trump to offer some support to give “security guarantees” to Ukraine in the form of intelligence, surveillance or military aircraft information. But few European leaders are already fooled on Trump’s disinterest for the safety of their former allies and their proximity to Putin.
Kremlin’s vision
In fact, the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, presumed this Sunday of his tune with Trump and his team: “The new administration is quickly changing its foreign policy configurations. This greatly coincides with our vision, ”he said.
On Friday, the president of the United States and JD Vance, his vice president and who has a trajectory of hostility against Ukraine and other Europeans, threw Zelenski from the White House after abroading him before the cameras while the Ukrainian president tried to deny any of the bulls that repeated over his country or attacked him for not taking a suit. The Ukrainian president wanted to continue negotiating the agreement that the United States requested to keep the exploitation of minerals in his country and even offered to return to the White House that same day.
Starmer tried to intercede without success. The next day, Zelenski welcomed a very hot welcoming with a hug, good words and the signing of an agreement of more than 2.7 billion euros in help, in this case loans financed with Russian goods frozen by sanctions.
This Sunday, in an interview at the BBC, Starmer said he had felt “uncomfortable” before the scene in Washington and that “nobody” wants to “see something like that”, but avoided criticizing Trump and said that his attitude is always to “row” and look for a solution. When asked by the BBC journalist if Zelenski had done “something wrong,” Starmer replied forcefully: “No. This is a man whose country has been at war for three years. They have been invaded by Russia. This is a Russian aggression. ”
In a message on social networks written in the third person, Trump presumed this Sunday of being “a genius” that would force Zelenski to “give up.”
European independence
But Starmer, like other leaders, tries to soften the relationship with the United States, among other things to gain time until Europe is more independent in defense of its hitherto ally.
Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, acknowledged that NATO is “changing” and is becoming “more transactional”, but said that the break between the United States and Europe only benefits Putin. Stubb was one of the great defenders of his country’s adhesion to the alliance before the threat of Moscow.
One of the clearest leaders on the new scenario has been the future German chancellor, conservative Friedrich Merz, that as soon as he won the elections he said that it must be assumed that NATO can or exist in its current form in June, when the next summit of leaders in The Hague is planned. Merz said that the interference of vice president JD Vance and businessman and advisor Elon Musk in favor of the extreme right in his elections was equivalent to what the Kremlin did.
“I would never have thought that I would say something like this on a television program, but after what Donald Trump said last week [en referencia al penúltimo ataque de Trump contra Zelenski] It is clear that this government does not care about the fate of Europe, ”Merz said at the Round Table on German public television of all candidates the night of the elections. “My absolute priority is to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, step by step, until we can achieve independence from the United States.”
In their conversations to form a new government coalition, conservatives and social democrats are already talking about establishing two new funds to invest in defense and infrastructure, each of at least 400,000 million euros, According to the Reuters news agency.
Next Thursday, the heads of State and Government of the EU will meet again in an extraordinary European council in Brussels where they will discuss how to increase defense spending, both in their individual commitments and in common efforts. They also consider the appointment of an envoy that represents the EU in the negotiations between Trump and Putin, although any agreement that requires unanimity has the obstacle of the pro-ruse governments of Hungary and Slovakia.
“We urgently need to rearm Europe,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the exit of the meeting in London. “We have to accelerate a lot.”
“We cannot repeat Minsk’s experience,” said Antònio Costa, the president of the European Council, in reference to the failed fire in 2014. “We cannot repeat the tragedy of Afghanistan … for this we need a strong security guarantee. Getting peace goes hand in hand. ”
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