European leaders emerged from a summit with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and other heads of state in London on Sunday to say that the European Union had embarked on a surge in military spending.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Europe will fortify Ukraine with economic and military aid, aiming to turn the country into “a steel porcupine that is indigestible for potential invaders”. Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said several European countries had pledged to increase their military spending. Rutte insisted that US President Donald Trump was committed to Nato.
The gathering took on greater urgency after Zelensky’s heated Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vice-President JD Vance on Friday raised fears that the US would try to strong-arm Ukraine’s president into making a peace deal. “We’re gathered here today because this is a once-in-a-generation moment for the security of Europe, and we all need to step up,” host British PM Keir Starmer, with Zelensky beside him, told the assembled leaders. “Getting a good outcome for Ukraine is not just a matter of right and wrong, it’s vital for the security of every nation here & many others too,” he said.
Starmer said the UK will use £1.6 billion ($2 bn) in export financing to supply 5,000 air defence missiles for Ukraine. He wrapped up the summit by saying Europe had to do the heavy lifting in defending itself.
Earlier, Starmer told BBC that he, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron had agreed that they “would work on a plan for stopping the fighting and then discuss that plan with the US”. Any peace agreement “is going to need a US backstop,” he said.
The British PM said UK, Ukraine, France and some other nations would form a “coalition of the willing” and draw up the peace plan and present it to Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)
