European leaders tried to take advantage of the containing the abrupt turn of. The containment effort was deployed in several ways, from a manifestation of political support of EU leaders to President Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, to multiple contacts with the US delegation to try to persuade about the risks of certain approaches and announce changes in policy Prosecutor in the EU to support a greater investment in defense.
The establishment of, not including kyiv and the European capitals, and the statements of the new chief of the Pentagon – who gave the territorial losses of Ukraine and the refusal at his entry into the NATO – were an earthquake whose Tremors caused authentic restlessness among the delegates of, to which a large number of heads of state and government, Foreign and Defense Ministers, diplomats, military, and experts in the sector attend.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in her speech in the plenary session that she will propose “activate the exhaust clause for investments in defense”, in reference to a special mechanism that, in crisis situations, allows exceptions to the fiscal norms of the stability and growth pact. He said that this exception would be made in a “controlled and conditioned” way, but the spite is open. Von der Leyen made it clear that this critical moment claims the application of extraordinary criteria.
The matter touches the essential fiber of the European response to Trump’s turn: an increase in spending will be necessary to compensate for what is emerging as an increasingly inevitable withdrawal from the United States, both from direct support to Ukraine in its defense and commitment with the security of Europe in general. From Warsovia, where he was visiting, the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth: “Now is the time to invest [en defensa] Because you can’t assume that the American presence will always last. ”
The “error” of Washington concessions
Von der Leyen and the president of the European Council, António Costa, met with Zelenski in Munich, thus staging the persistent will of European support to kyiv. The immediate objective of this support is to allow you to negotiate peace from a position of strength, which will in all likelihood imply an abrupt increase in effort in view of Trumpist positions. Germany Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said openly that the apparent concessions made by Washington to Russia before starting a formal negotiation are an “error.”
in an encounter that the latter defined as “fruitful.” The Ukrainian president also described the dialogue as good, and said he considers it necessary to “speak more, work more and prepare a plan to stop Putin.” It is evident that Zelenski seeks to maintain a fluency of dialogue with Washington despite movements that are of maximum restlessness for Ukraine. In that sense, kyiv works in a pact to grant Washington an advantageous access to strategic minerals.
Even so, the phrase of the Ukrainian leader makes clear that, to date, there is nothing similar to a plan. The feeling of improvisation and chaos by the US administration was extended in Munich. For example, they caused Trump’s statements that aimed at a possible meeting with a Russian delegation. At the Munich conference there is no Russian delegation. Perhaps throughout the weekend there is an encounter that justifies Trump’s words, but the confusion effect was considerable.
The Ukrainian president said, on the other hand, that he will only meet with Putin when there is a shared peace plan between Ukraine, the USA and the EU. He argued that the war approached in the past years on both sides of the Atlantic and that that asset should not be lost. He also noted that an eventual peace plan that does not contemplate as a guarantee the entry of Ukraine into NATO would require redoubled the country’s army troops to up to 1.5 million soldiers.
That is the background of the effort that, according to Washington, must sustain Europe. If the first thing is to support kyiv so that it can negotiate a peace that is not a capitulation, the second will be to provide very wide – or perhaps even total – the support and security guarantees necessary to maintain an eventual high fire. Meanwhile, Europeans will have to fight even to just have a voice in the negotiations that concern the security of the continent.
