 "'It's great we are not alone': Zelenskyy thanks European leaders for 'strong support'")
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday thanked European leaders for their “strong support” which he said he has seen “from the very beginning of the war and throughout this entire period, including last week,” when he was berated by US President Donald Trump in Oval Office.
“We are very thankful that we are not alone. And these are not just words. We feel it,” The Guardian quoted Zelenskyy as saying during the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.
“It’s very important you (sent) a strong signal to Ukrainian people, to Ukrainian warriors, to civilians, to all our families. And it’s great that we are not alone,” he added.
On Thursday, European leaders said they would stand by Ukraine and spend more on defence in a world upended by Trump’s reversal of US policies.
“Europe must take up this challenge, this arms race. And it must win it,” Reuters quoted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as saying.
“Europe as a whole is truly capable of winning any military, financial, economic confrontation with Russia - we are simply stronger,” Tusk added.
Many EU leaders hailed the European Commission’s proposals this week to give them fiscal flexibility on defence spending, and to jointly borrow up to 150 billion euros ($160 billion) to lend to EU governments to spend on their militaries.
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View All“We are here to defend Ukraine,” the chairman of the meeting Antonio Costa said as he and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen, both smiling broadly, warmly welcomed Zelenskyy, in sharp contrast with the clash between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last week.
But decades of reliance on US protection, divergences on funding and on how France’s nuclear deterrence could be used for Europe showed how difficult it would be for the EU to fill the void left by Washington after it froze military aid to Ukraine.
Washington provided more than 40% of military aid to Ukraine last year, according to Nato, some of which Europe could not easily replace. Some leaders still held out hope, in public at least, that Washington could be coaxed back into the fold.
“We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that US support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years, because Ukraine is also dependent on their support for its defence,” Reuters quoted Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
Adding to the EU’s difficulties, Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban, a Trump ally, may veto a unanimous statement backing Kyiv, though he made clear he would support measures for an increase in spending on Europe’s own defence.
With inputs from agencies
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