European leaders are racing to figure out how to keep Ukraine supplied with weapons as US President Donald Trump appears to be walking away from the war. One option: buy American.
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Europe has neither the stocks of arms nor the capacity to make them in large enough volume as it becomes clear that the US will not be delivering any more. The White House has also refused Europe’s appeals to keep up the push to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire by stepping up sanctions.
Instead, the Kremlin seems to be stalling on peace talks promised to Trump as it prepares for a summer offensive, according to people familiar with the matter. A proposal that is gaining more credence is to purchase more American systems – and then send those weapons to Ukraine, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
The idea is that if Trump refuses to send US weapons to Ukraine, Europe will.
That would help Ukraine deter Russia’s advance and might put fresh pressure on Putin to get serious about a ceasefire. And if the Europeans can persuade Trump to keep up supplying intelligence to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky may be able to hang on.
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At the same time, the European Union is considering cutting more than 20 banks from Swift, the international payments system, as well as lowering a price cap on Russian oil and banning the Nord Stream gas pipelines as part of a new sanctions package to pressure Russia.
“It’s not entirely clear to me how bad it would be if the United States walks away while keeping open the possibility of allowing Europe or Ukraine to buy US weapons and allows US intelligence sharing with Ukraine to continue,” said Andrew Weiss, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s not an ideal outcome. It’s certainly suboptimal, but it’s not the total worst case that a lot of us have been worried about.”