Europe’s duty to Ukraine

It’s hard to say what has echoed louder in recent weeks. Was it the thunder of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s missile strike earlier this month, which killed 35 people and wounded 117 in the Ukrainian city of Sumy? Was it last night’s horrific strikes on Kyiv? Was it Donald Trump once again blaming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for the war, and threatening to walk away from negotiations? Or perhaps it was Zelensky’s chilling warning to the White House that Russian propaganda is winning ground in America?

Strip away the dubious intel, the ever-confident war analysts, the propaganda noise and the conflicting statements from world capitals, and you’re left with three men shaping the fate of this war. Their goals are not just divergent, but also fundamentally at odds. Putin seeks conquest. Zelensky fights for survival. And Trump promises peace, but never names the price.

As Trump has shown, bold promises are easier made than fulfilled. He once claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. Later, he adjusted that timeline to six months. As that deadline looms, we have no sign of peace – only more slogans, more posts on Truth Social and more pressure on Kyiv to accept terms it cannot afford.

Even Trump himself seems to sense the futility of his performance. His rhetoric now sounds less like a call for ceasefire and more like a retreat – not just from the battlefield, but also from responsibility. ‘Millions of people dead because of three people’, he said last week. ‘Let’s say Putin, number one, let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky.’

The line was classic Trump: blunt, theatrical and self-serving. Beneath it, though, was a revealing message. This isn’t his war. Not his mess. Not his problem. By casting blame on everyone else – on Putin, Biden, even Zelensky – Trump effectively washes his hands of the conflict. In doing so, he leaves Ukraine alone to face a brutal enemy.

If Trump steps away, does responsibility simply shift to Europe? Some suggest that the European Union, along with NATO allies, can pick up the slack. That the burden of supporting Ukraine might fall on Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and London. That a coalition of ‘villainous’ countries, as Russian propaganda frames them, will stand united against Moscow. Yet the numbers tell a more complicated story.

Since 2022, the US has provided about $75 billion in aid to Ukraine, including $66 billion in military assistance. The entire European Union has collectively contributed a similar amount, but spread across 27 countries. The scale and decisiveness of American support has been unmatched. Without it, Ukraine’s resistance would likely have faltered long ago.

To be sure, Europe is not idle. French president Emmanuel Macron has floated the idea of sending troops to Ukraine – not to fight, he says, but to act as ‘reassurance forces’ and to perform support missions, such as mine-clearing or training. The UK has made similar gestures. There is also talk, still tentative, about deploying UN peacekeepers to secure humanitarian corridors or to protect infrastructure. These are, however, merely signals.

The essential question, then, is this: is Europe really planning to step up where America retreats? Europe, for all its hesitations and internal divisions, has little choice now but to become a more committed ally of Ukraine. Anything less would be a strategic delusion, and a fatal one at that. A bad peace – or worse, Ukraine’s subjugation – would have major repercussions across the continent. European leaders are beginning to understand they will need to do more than hide behind Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has vowed to turn Ukraine into a ‘steel porcupine’, a bulwark unassailable by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s war of liberation will likely continue for years, with or without US involvement. In time, we may see a far more coherent triangle of power emerge. It could consist of a Russia that seeks to absorb Ukraine, a Ukraine that is fighting to repel and defeat Russia, and a Europe that is compelled by necessity to keep supporting Ukraine.

What Europe does now will shape its future for decades to come.

Sergey Maidukov is a Ukrainian writer. He is the author of Life on the Run: One Family’s Search for Peace in War-torn Ukraine.