The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy According to Saturday, the time has come for the creation of an “European armed forces” because the United States can no longer be counted to support Europe.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz retaliated against the Americans for getting involved in the election of his country after the American vice-president JD Vance reprimanded European leaders from their approach to democracy and met the leader of a German far -right party.
Energic speeches by Zelenskyy and Scholz on day 2 of the Munich security conference underlined the impact of a decisions Blizzard by US President Donald Trump which show rapid growth chasm in transatlantic links.
European leaders are in shock after Trump’s decision to upset the years of American politics by organizing talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the hope of ending the Ukraine Russian War. Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia on Saturday has everything except that Europeans will be included in all peace talks in Ukraine.
Crawling his desire for a more muscular and powerful Europe, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s three -year struggle against Russia has proven that a foundation exists for the creation of a European army – an idea discussed for a long time among Some continental leaders.
“I really think the time has come,” he said. “The armed forces of Europe must be created.”
Zelenskyy alluded to a phone conversation between trump and putin this week, After Which Trump Said He and Putin Would Likely Meet Soon to Negotiate A Peace Deal Over Ukraine-Breaking with the Biden Administration’s Harder Line Against Moscow Over Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine Invasion of Ukraine Invasion of Ukraine Invasion of Ukraine 2022.
Trump later assured Zelenskyy that he too would have a seat at the table to end the war. The Ukrainian chief insisted that Europe should also have one.
“Ukraine will never accept agreements concluded behind our back without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” said Zelenskyy, adding that “not once (Trump) mentions that the ‘America needs Europe at the table. “
“It says a lot,” he said. “The old days is over when America supported Europe just because it has always had.”
Get national news
For news that has an impact on Canada and worldwide, register for the safeguarding of news alerts that are delivered to you directly when they occur.
“Now, while we were fighting this war and launching the basics of peace and security, we have to build the armed forces of Europe,” said Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said his idea was not to replace NATO. “It is a question of ensuring that the contribution of Europe to our partnership is equal to that of America,” he said.
We do not know if the idea will affect European leaders. Zelenskyy has requested greater military and economic support from the European Union for years and has noticed several times that other parts of Europe could also be vulnerable to Russia’s expansionist ambitions.
While the block – with the United States – was one of kyiv’s strongest donors, pockets of political disagreement in the EU about its Moscow approach and economic realities, including national debt levels that have climbed defense expenses, were greater support.
Europeans are probably excluded from Ukrainian peace talks
European leaders have tried to give meaning to a difficult new line of Washington on issues such as democracy and the future of Ukraine, while the Trump administration continues to upset the transatlantic conventions which have been in place since World War II.
General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, almost cut Europeans from all Ukrainian-Russia talks, despite Zelenskyy’s call for Europe to participate.
“You can ensure that the Ukrainians, the Russians and clearly the Americans at the table were talking,” Kellogg said during a event organized by a Ukrainian magnate. Pressed if it meant that Europeans will not be included, he said: “I am a school of realism. I think that will not happen.
“We must ensure Ukrainian sovereignty,” he said, before adding: “The European Alliance … will be essential.”
Asked what he would say to Trump if he was at the conference, Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Poland for Foreign Affairs, said that he would remind Trump that the United States had undertaken to stand with the ‘Ukraine as long as it would take until it ensures its independence.
“The credibility of the United States depends on the end of this war-not just the Trump administration (but) of the United States itself,” said Sikorski.
Annalena Baerbock, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the new American position as a “moment of truth” which forces European leaders to overcome their differences and to unite with significant peace in Ukraine.
“It’s an existential moment. This is a time when Europe must get up, ”she said. “There will be no lasting peace if it is not a peace to Europe.”
Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, on the other hand, deplored the lack of clarity of Washington.
“People still don’t know what the United States wants to do. And I think it would be good if we came from this conference if they had a clear image, “she said.
The German Chancellor strikes Vance
Earlier, Scholz declared that he was “happy” of what he called a common commitment with the United States to “preserve the sovereign independence of Ukraine” and agreed with Trump that the Russian war -Ukraine had to end.
But Scholz also condemned Washington’s new politician, affirming his strong position against the far right and said that his country would not accept people who “intervene in our democracy”.
One day earlier, Vance reprimanded the leaders of Europe at the conference and suggested that freedom of expression was “retired” through the continent. He said that many Americans saw in Europe “rooted interests hiding behind ugly words from the Soviet era such as disinformation and disinformation”.
Vance said that no democracy could survive by telling millions of voters that their concerns “are invalid or unworthy of being considered”. He also met the co-leader of the extreme right alternative for the German party (AFD), which intervenes secondly on Scholz’s own social democrats before the February 23 elections in Germany.
By referring to the Nazi past of Germany, Scholz said that long -standing commitment to “never again” – a return to the far right – was not reconciled with support for AFD.
“We will not accept that people who look at Germany from outside intervene in our democracy and our elections and in the process of formation of democratic opinion in the interest of this party,” he said . “It’s just not done, certainly not among friends and allies. We resolutely reject this. »»
“Where our democracy goes from here, it is for us to decide,” added Scholz.