The Polish Donald Tusk is positioning himself at the head of the European effort to continue support for Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine in view of the beginning of the era of the other Donald, the American Trump. The Warsaw prime minister has announced that in the coming days he will hold a series of meetings with the leaders of France, the United Kingdom and the Nordic and Baltic countries in what appears to be an effort to create a coalition of the willing who want to continue to support Kiev’s war effort against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Among the European leaders that Tusk intends to meet, the absence of two of them in particular is notable: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, dealing with a government crisis in Berlin that could soon cause him to lose his job, and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Trump’s disengagement
Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine “in one day” and has made no secret of his desire to cut the aid the United States provides to the former Soviet country. The Republican defined Zelensky as “the greatest salesman of all time” for his ability to secure international and Washington support, complaining that he receives too many billions from the US.
The eldest son of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump Jr, just yesterday shared on Instagram an old clip posted by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that read “You’re 38 days away from losing your allowance” on a video of the president Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump’s inauguration is scheduled for January 20, and just at the beginning of that month there will be another ‘inauguration’, with Poland starting its semester at the helm of the European Union, which will give Tusk greater influence on the block.
The new panorama
“This new political landscape is a serious challenge for everyone, especially in the context of a possible end to the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Tusk said this weekend, announcing that Warsaw “will very intensively coordinate cooperation with countries that have a very similar to the geopolitical and transatlantic situation and the situation in Ukraine”.
The Polish Prime Minister will meet the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in Warsaw. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tusk could meet in Warsaw or London while a meeting with Nordic and Baltic leaders is expected to be held in Stockholm. The Pole said he had already spoken with Starmer, Macron and Scandinavian leaders to discuss “what this potential US withdrawal from active politics in Ukraine means for us.”
“No one wants an escalation of the conflict”, added the Pole, according to whom however “at the same time, no one wants Ukraine to weaken or even capitulate; this would be a fundamental threat to Poland and Polish interests”.
Borrell in Kiev
To reassure Ukrainians, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell went to Kiev on Saturday to reaffirm Europe’s support in what was the first official visit by a senior EU official since the US elections. “We will support Ukraine as much as possible,” the Spaniard assured.
His place in the new commission will be taken by the former Estonian prime minister, Kaya Kallas, one of the countries that most supported the need to support Kiev and aim for a victory in the war. The EU has so far contributed 118 billion euros in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the invasion began in 2022, while the United States has provided $90 billion, according to data from the Kiel Institute.
