EU updates military strategy: all countries support rearmament
7 March 00:27
The European rearmament plan, recently presented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, has been approved by all 27 EU member states. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to Reuters.
“Europe must accept this challenge, this arms race. And it must win it. Europe as a whole is really capable of winning any military, financial, economic confrontation with Russia – we are just stronger,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a special defense summit in Brussels.
This week, EU leaders backed the European Commission’s rearmament proposal. The plan envisages mobilizing 800 billion euros and includes 150 billion euros in loans for defense needs.
In a joint statement agreed upon by all 27 member states, leaders called on their governments to urgently examine the proposals in detail.
Support for Ukraine
EU leaders also expressed support for Ukraine, but this statement was agreed without the leadership of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump ally.
In their statement, the 26 other EU leaders emphasized that there can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine and pledged to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, according to a recent draft.
“We are here to defend Ukraine,” said Antonio Costa, who chaired the meeting.
Follow us on Telegram: the main news in brief
“Coalition of the willing”
The initiative is led by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Its discussion intensified after a public conflict between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House.
The peacekeeping force led by the United Kingdom and France may include contingents from several European countries that will be deployed on the territory of Ukraine (but not on the contact line) in the event of a truce or peace agreement. The presence of Western troops is expected to be a deterrent to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who could use the pause to regroup his forces and make a new attempt to conquer Ukraine.
However, the key issue remains the security guarantees for this mission, which are demanded by future peacekeepers, primarily from the United States. The absence of such guarantees has already become one of the reasons for the dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy, which arose over the mineral resources agreement between Ukraine and the United States.
Starmer said that the UK, France, and Ukraine are working on a peace agreement to be presented to Washington.
Reaction and prospects
Meanwhile, US Vice President J.D. Vance expressed skepticism about the initiative. He stated that American economic interests in Ukraine are “a better guarantee of security than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t been at war in the last 30-40 years.”
This statement drew sharp criticism both in the UK and among American Democrats. Vance was reminded that Canadian, British, and French troops fought alongside the United States in Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom also participated in the invasion of Iraq.
The concept of a “coalition of the willing” implies that NATO member states will be able to act together, but not within the framework of the Alliance. This will avoid political contradictions, as Hungary and Slovakia have taken a pro-Russian position and are blocking consensus among the allies.
At the same time, the Baltic states-Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, as well as Finland-have expressed interest in joining the British-French initiative. In addition, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his country is also ready to consider the participation of its peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Moscow has already rejected the idea of deploying any peacekeeping force, whether from NATO, the EU, or any other format.
