Kiev struggles to cut off US military aid and exchange intelligence. Donald Trump's administration is exerting expanding force on Volodymyr Zelenski to rapidly enter into a peace agreement with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Prior to the gathering in Brussels diplomats from countries that powerfully support Ukraine, expressed hope that the gathering would bring fresh commitments to strengthen Kiev's position. But that did not happen.
— We must now support Ukraine more than always — she argued before the extraordinary summit of Kaja Kallas, head of EU diplomacy.
However, after 10 hours of talks and despite the public embrace of Zelenski — who addressed journalists in the company of the leaders of the 2 most crucial EU institutions, Ursuli von der Leyen and Antonio Costa — the final conclusions negotiated between national leaders focused only on their joint efforts to build a dispersed defence sector.
The part concerning Ukraine was not accepted due to opposition by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor OrbanWho didn't hide his support for Putin. Even before the meeting, he objected to this declaration and kept this position.
The remainder of the EU leaders do not believe that this undermines the unity of the block. “He has done this before,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “This did not overthrow the European Union,” he added.
Without Hungary, 26 countries have signed a message on Ukraine, which sets red lines for future peace talks, calls for Kiev to join the block and promises future military aid without concrete assumptions. This was not the consequence of Zelenski's deficiency of effort.
Peace through strength
Dressed in his distinctive black war suit that provoked Trump's mockery during his visit to the White home last week, The Ukrainian president presented a list of the most urgent needs in Brussels.
He described the regular Russian raids on Ukrainian cities, calling on Europe to “speed up” work on a financial instrument to aid the Ukrainian military. He called for a fresh package of sanctions against Russia and called on the EU to implement plans to adopt Ukraine to block by 2030.
President of the European Council Antonio Costa, president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski and president of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen talk to the press before the EU summit at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium on 6 March 2025.Viktor Dabkowski / PAP
“Achieving a “peace through strength” requires Ukraine to be in its strongest position, with its own solid military and defence capabilities as an essential element”, says a message signed by 26 leaders. "The European Union remains committed, in coordination with likewise reasoning partners and allies, to providing Ukraine and its people with increased political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support", provided EU leaders.
The EU diplomat who spoke under the condition of being anonymous defended EU plans to increase military assistance to Ukraine. Work on future arms packages is to proceed within the willing coalition, possibly involving non-EU countries specified as the United Kingdom.
Prior to the meeting, Kallas attempted to unite EU countries around efforts to rise at least EUR 20 billion (more than PLN 83.5 billion) for military aid to Ukraine in 2025. Despite extended talks between diplomats, there has been no unanimous support for this initiative.
In talks behind closed doors between Kallas leaders, she stressed that the block should focus on delivering arms to Ukraine, and not just on buying it for its own use, claims 2 EU diplomats.
On Thursday, Zelenski received respective circumstantial commitments but not from the EU. Norway committed to expanding its direct military aid to Ukraine to EUR 8 billion (more than PLN 33.4 billion) in 2025, thereby doubling its erstwhile commitment.
"Can Europe manage itself?"
The main question about Ukraine's future was whether the EU could replace or to any degree compensate for the cut-off of US military aid and intelligence.
Estonia's Prime Minister Kristen Michal raised this issue in a discussion behind closed doors, says an EU authoritative acquainted with the talks. “Can we manage ourselves?” the Prime Minister had to ask. The answer is meaningful silence.
Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion 3 years ago, EU countries have jointly committed to providing Ukraine with more financial and military support than the United States. This support will proceed to flow in the coming months, with around EUR 30 billion (PLN 125.3 billion) of financial assistance for 2025 in the form of loans secured by frozen Russian assets.
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However, the end of American military support leaves a gap in the ability of allies to support Ukraine in all aspects of the war, especially as regards intelligence and mark data for precision weapons.
— The end of intelligence sharing is truly very crucial for Ukraine “PolITICO said Colonel Philip Ingram, a erstwhile British Army intelligence officer. — This means losing access to information about the acquisition of targets for long-range missiles, but besides capturing incoming rockets and drone fleets,’ he pointed out.
— EU associate States simply do not have much strategical intelligence capacity due to the fact that they are very focused internally — countries like Germany are completely dependent on NATO. Now they are faced with the possible of having to increase their abilities, but this requires decades and hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.
Change of course towards NATO
When the European leaders sat down for dinner, NBC News tv reports raised fresh doubts about US commitments to NATO. citing current and erstwhile U.S. officials, the station suggested that Washington could commit to defending only those countries that usage a certain percent of their GDP to defend themselves.
Concerns about the possible withdrawal of the United States or the lowering of the European safety architecture have sparked 1 of the top geopolitical crises that have affected the continent for decades, and EU leaders have engaged feverishly in diplomacy.
The fight by Europeans to avoid the failure of the US safety warrant has become their top priority. Helping to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table proved to be a secondary issue, as evidenced by the amount of time spent in talks about Ukraine compared to defence.
The debate on defence continued for most of the 10-hour meeting. The leaders argued about how to finance defence growth by EUR 800 billion (PLN 3.3 trillion) and what part of the funds to invest in the Union and beyond.
According to 1 EU diplomat, talks on Ukraine ended after about 15 minutes. That says everything.
