Following a potential US-Russia peace deal, the US intends for European allies to assume primary responsibility for Ukraine’s security.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected any division of security responsibilities between Europe and the US. Following an emergency NATO meeting in France, he opposed the notion of the US withdrawing support for Ukraine. US President Donald Trump’s administration is pursuing a swift end to the Ukraine conflict through a peace deal with Russia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated that the US doesn’t anticipate a role for American or NATO troops in post-truce Ukrainian security arrangements.
French President Emmanuel Macron convened the meeting to solidify a united European response to the shift in US policy. Notably, some dissenting EU members were absent. At a press conference, Scholz dismissed questions about German troop deployments to Ukraine as premature and irritating, while expressing confidence in NATO’s security framework. He emphasized to reporters that there must be no division of security responsibilities between Europe and the USA, highlighting NATO’s principle of collective action and shared risk for security.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer affirmed the UK’s readiness to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, including deploying troops, before departing for the Paris discussions.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated before the meeting that Poland wouldn’t send troops to Ukraine. Post-summit, he commented that such meetings rarely yield concrete decisions and stressed the importance of close US cooperation.
The three-hour Elysee Palace meeting included leaders from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, along with NATO and EU representatives. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, a long-time critic of Western policy on Ukraine, contrasted the Paris talks unfavorably with upcoming US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.
”We trust that the American-Russian negotiations will be successful, leading to peace in Ukraine,” Szijjarto said, characterizing the Paris participants as “war-mongering countries with a misguided strategy.”