In London on Sunday 2 March, around ten European leaders, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stressed the need for solid security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace agreement. The tense exchanges between Mr Zelensky and the American President, Donald Trump, on Friday 28 February, have changed the situation in the negotiation process.
“We must learn from the past. We cannot repeat the Minsk experience. We cannot repeat the Afghanistan tragedy. And for that, we need strong security guarantees”, insisted the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, at the end of the meeting organised by the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
For the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the allies must ensure that Ukraine can resist “potential invaders” after a potential peace agreement. “Therefore, the focus is not only on the military supply, but also, for example, securing the energy system and making sure that over time this is a strong and resilient country”, she insisted, after also taking part in the meeting in London.
The European Council on 6 March should support this principle with regard to Volodymyr Zelensky, who will once again be at the table of the Heads of State or Government.
In order to put Ukraine in a position to truly defend itself, European leaders should reiterate the need for increased support, in particular through the delivery of additional military equipment and training for Ukrainian soldiers. The exact wording of the military support still needs to be fine-tuned in the text of the conclusions, a new version of which is due to be examined on Tuesday 4 March by the permanent representatives of the Member States to the EU.
A leadership battle. After the altercation between Volodymyr Zelensky on the one hand, and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on the other, several leaders saw this as a sign that the resolution of the conflict required new leadership, other than that of the United States, to guarantee a lasting peace for Ukraine, with the American President not admitting that Russia could violate a future peace agreement. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge”, declared Kaja Kallas on 28 February.
The spokesperson for the European External Action Service, Anouar El Anouni, has since qualified this statement: “For 80 years, the United States has been Europe’s closest ally. Faced with common adversaries, Americans and Europeans are stronger together. While the differences are obvious, the EU and the US have always managed to overcome them and will continue to do so”.
For their part, the French and British leaders are trying to take control of this process. On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer discussed the idea of a month-long truce “in the air, on the seas and regarding energy infrastructure”.
Volodymyr Zelensky reacted a few hours later: “It will be a failure for everyone if Ukraine is forced into a ceasefire without serious security guarantees”.
See the draft conclusions dated 3 March : https://aeur.eu/f/fq1 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with the editorial staff)