Europe Has the Money to Save Ukraine. It Needs the Will
The US strategy for peace seems to rest on appeasing the Kremlin. Other allies must step up to shape the war’s endgame.
Brothers in arms.
Photographer: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
A disastrous Oval Office meeting for Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday crystallized what was already becoming apparent: US support for Ukraine’s war effort is fading fast, and Europe will need to pick up the slack. While Sunday’s gathering of European leaders in London included a commitment to keep military aid flowing and to formulate a peace plan, it’s the details that will matter.
So far, the US peace strategy has seemed to rest on appeasing the Kremlin — promising territorial concessions, parroting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points and trash-talking the transatlantic alliance. Zelenskiy, on the heels of the leaders of France and Britain, failed to elicit firm security guarantees from the White House last week. The rebuke he received after pressing the matter — “Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” exclaimed Vice President JD Vance — has left relations with the US uncertain.