British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to follow with a White House meeting on Thursday, after saying the U.K. would be “ready and willing” to put U.K. troops on the ground in Ukraine as a security guarantee in a peace deal.
The third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday may help focus minds as Moscow’s forces continue to make advances on the battlefield and the U.S. pushes for a swift end to the war.
“Enough talking, it’s time to act!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X last week, calling for bold action from Europeans, including using frozen Russian assets to finance aid to Ukraine and strengthening air defenses along EU borders with Russia. Tusk, one of the European leaders who can claim a solid relationship with Trump, has sought to ease tensions between Washington and Kyiv.
As Macron sits down to talks with Trump, the European Union and its closest allies will be staging a show of force in Kyiv on Monday, designed to signal that the bloc stands firmly behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even as the White House turns against him and aligns with Russia’s talking points.
The delegation converging on Ukraine’s war-torn capital will include not only the EU’s top officials — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa — but also the leaders of Spain, the Nordic and Baltic countries and several others, including NATO members not in the EU.
Amid preparations for their trip, leaders are working on a package of military support for Ukraine that’s expected to be worth at least €20 billion, according to several diplomats who have been briefed on the EU’s efforts. The bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has asked each EU country to review their military inventories to see what they can give to Kyiv, with an emphasis on artillery shells, air defenses, training and equipment for Ukraine’s brigades.
