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European leaders rallied round Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his spectacular Oval Workplace bust-up with Donald Trump, however the rift between Kyiv and Washington leaves Europe with agonising decisions about the right way to prop up Ukraine.
Friday’s confrontation, the place the US president accused the Ukrainian chief of “playing” with a 3rd world battle, brought about consternation in European capitals and exacerbated fears of an irreparable transatlantic breach.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, was maybe essentially the most pointed in her appraisal.
“Right now, it turned clear that the free world wants a brand new chief. It’s as much as us, Europeans, to take this problem,” she mentioned.
Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s prime minister, described the extraordinary scenes within the White Home as “severe and disheartening”.
“That Trump accuses Zelenskyy of playing with world battle three is deeply unreasonable and a press release I distance myself from,” he mentioned.
A rating of different European leaders closed ranks behind Zelenskyy with out criticising the US president instantly.
“Your dignity honours the bravery of the Ukrainian folks. Be robust, be courageous, be fearless. You’re by no means alone, expensive President Zelenskyy,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Fee, and António Costa, president of the European Council, mentioned in a joint assertion.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged his “unwavering assist”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met Trump on the White Home on Monday, was the primary European chief to defend Zelenskyy on Friday night, stating: “I believe everyone knows the state of affairs: there’s an aggressor, which is Russia, and there’s an attacked folks, which is Ukraine.”
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, mentioned Berlin “stand[s] with Ukraine in good and in testing occasions. We must not ever confuse aggressor and sufferer on this horrible battle.”
The expressions of assist for Ukraine — and rebukes of Trump, direct or oblique — underscore how the transatlantic relationship has been fractured by the US president’s hasty makes an attempt to finish the battle and restore ties with Moscow.
Trump’s antagonistic stance in direction of Ukraine, his risk to take away safety of European Nato allies who don’t spend extra on defence, and his vow to impose 25 per cent tariffs on EU imports have made stark that Europe must formulate a plan to scale back its reliance on the US. Nevertheless, there isn’t a clear plan for the right way to obtain that within the brief time period.
The breakdown in relations between Zelenskyy and Trump additionally piles strain on senior European leaders assembly in London on Sunday for a swiftly organized summit hosted by Starmer.
The summit is geared toward formulating proposals to collectively defend Ukraine and increase spending on defence, lowering the continent’s dependence on America.
“We lastly have to get up and realise: ‘That is it’,” mentioned a senior EU diplomat in response to the White Home fallout. “We’re on our personal and the dad and mom on the opposite facet of the Atlantic have simply turfed us out of the household house, reduce off our allowances and disinherited us.”
Trump’s verbal assault on Zelenskyy, which got here days after a dozen European leaders travelled to Ukraine to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the nation, blew away any lingering hopes that they might persuade the US president to rethink his strategy to a speedy peace deal.
Throughout their visits to the White Home this week, Macron and Starmer made a co-ordinated try to influence Trump to offer navy back-up for a potential European stabilisation power in Ukraine, which they each mentioned was indispensable. These efforts have been derailed by Friday’s showdown within the White Home.
No 10 Downing Avenue on Friday night mentioned Starmer had spoken to Zelenskyy and Trump and was “enjoying his half to discover a path ahead”.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s nationalist conservative prime minister, known as for an “instant summit” between the EU and US “to talk frankly about how we intend to face right this moment’s nice challenges, beginning with Ukraine”.
There was one notable exception to the refrain of European assist for Zelenskyy: Hungary’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sided with Trump.
“Sturdy males make peace, weak males make battle,” Orbán mentioned. “Right now President Trump stood bravely for peace. Even when it was troublesome for a lot of to digest. Thanks, Mr President.”
