Europe, even if it wanted to, cannot replace the US in Ukraine, - The Telegraph
Date: 2025-02-26 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WORLD
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are trying to force US President Donald Trump to become part of their plan to protect Ukraine. At the same time, as The Telegraph columnist Daniel DePetris writes, Macron and Starmer, despite the promises of the UK and France to increase defense spending, are skeptical about Europe's ability to cope with the Ukrainian issue on its own.
European countries have already allocated almost 62 billion euros to arm the Ukrainian military since the beginning of the war. However, deploying troops to Ukraine and promising to defend the country will obviously be a much larger and more expensive task.
As the analyst notes, Macron and Starmer seem to believe that the Europeans can cope with this task. This is possible if the Trump administration provides assistance in the form of air support, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, or air defense. But that would depend on Washington agreeing to defend Ukraine and its European partners if Russia violated any ceasefire — something the Trump administration wants to avoid.
“Take the U.S. out of the equation, and the European support force in Ukraine risks becoming almost dangerously problematic… Washington’s NATO allies in Europe remain heavily dependent on the U.S. for, among other things, long-range strike capabilities, command and control, ISR — particularly satellite communications — and air-to-air refueling. European munitions production also remains substandard,” he writes.
In addition, European militaries have limited numbers of modern air defense systems, and some European states — such as Germany and Poland — have been reluctant to provide them to Ukraine due to concerns about their own vulnerability. The European Union has also missed its deadline to deliver one million 155mm artillery shells to the Ukrainian army and has been forced to look to former Warsaw Pact stockpiles for them.
