View from London: Fighting Russia is now Europe’s problem – America is about to leave the stage

Italy's Giorgia Meloni, left, and Ursula von der Leyen during an EU summit in Brussels, discuss “enormous aid from Europe for Ukraine” and “victory over Russia”
Photo: AP

So, it’s official: Washington is pulling the plug on military aid to Ukraine, writes ‘The Telegraph’.

At Congressional hearings this week US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth confirmed the Trump administration has a “very different view” of the war in Ukraine to that of Joe Biden’s – and insisted that a “negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests.”

Given that the topic of the hearings was the US’s 2026 military budget, the message could hardly have been clearer. Fighting Russia is now Europe’s problem.

Washington has given Ukraine some $74 billion in military aid since February 2022. That includes game-changing equipment such as Patriot air defence systems that are Ukraine’s only effective defence against Russian ballistic missiles, ATACMS and HIMARS missiles, long-range M777 artillery, tanks, armoured vehicles, and millions of artillery rounds.

Some of the Biden-era packages are still coming down the procurement pipeline. But the bitter bottom line for Kyiv is that it has been abandoned by its most powerful and deep-pocketed ally.

That leaves Ukraine three options. The first is to rely on Europe stepping in to supply the weapons and equipment it needs. The second – proposed earlier this month by Zelensky – was to buy US made weapons from Washington with European money. The third is to make the weapons it needs in Ukrainian factories, funded by money from European allies.

Europe’s leaders have repeatedly promised to step up to the plate and deliver what Ukraine needs to fight on. Less happily, in practice, Europe seems better at promising than actually stepping.

Back on February 9, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a “ReArm Europe” package in Brussels that “could mobilise close to €800 billion of defence expenditures over five years… This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up.” But it soon emerged that this staggering sum was not, in fact, ready money but represented an easing of borrowing constraints on EU members if they chose to increase their defence budgets.

On March 19 EU high representative for external relations, Kaja Kallas, proposed a €40 billion arms aid package for Ukraine. But that plan was shot down by doubters such as Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain and Italy. Last month Europe finally put some cash (albeit someone else’s cash) on the table by directing €1 billion from the EU’s Peace Facility – made from frozen Russian assets – towards financing Ukraine’s domestic arms industry.

“Can Ukraine survive just on its own resources, and Europe’s intermittent money?” – asks ‘The Telegraph’.