Heads of some EU member states have tried to persuade US President-elect Donald Trump to continue funding Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported citing anonymous sources.
Trump soundly defeated incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s election, with Republicans also taking control of the US Senate and on track to keep the House majority. Since then, several EU leaders have called him to congratulate.
“Trump has been noncommittal on Ukraine in the calls, mainly listening and asking questions,” the Journal reported on Friday, citing anonymous officials briefed on the conversations.
EU leaders participating in the ‘European Political Community’ summit in Hungary this week appear to be divided on Ukraine, according to the US newspaper. At a dinner on Thursday at the parliament in Budapest, leaders from the Baltic states and Scandinavia urged the bloc to step up their support for Kiev if Washington pulls back. French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni seemed less enthusiastic.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the host of the summit, has urged Trump to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine as soon as possible. Slovakian PM Robert Fico has spoken out in favor of peace as well.
Speaking to reporters after the dinner, European Council president Charles Michel told reporters that the bloc has tried to persuade Trump that being “weak with Russia” would send a wrong signal to China and the rest of the world. The day before, Macron reportedly asked Trump to secure “real concessions” from Russia in any talks over Ukraine.
On Thursday, Macron told the summit that “our interest is that Russia doesn’t win this war…Because if it wins, that means that there will be an imperialist power lined up on our borders.”
Finnish PM Petteri Orpo said that the summit needed to “give a clear message” to Trump that “we support Ukraine as long and as much is needed.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky told the EPC summit that he didn’t yet know Trump’s plans, but that Kiev should “decide what should and should not be on the agenda for ending this war.” He also demanded from the EU the roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets if the US cuts him off, claiming the money “rightfully belongs” to Ukraine.
As the WSJ acknowledged, however, Ukraine is “overwhelmingly dependent on foreign military assistance and budgetary support” from the West.
The US has given the Ukrainian government $106 billion since the conflict escalated in February 2022, including $70 billion in military aid, and spent another $70 billion funding “various US activities associated” with Ukraine. The EU has contributed a total of $133 billion in financial, humanitarian, refugee and military assistance. Norway and the UK, which are in NATO but outside the EU, have also spent billions.
