Dem
47
GOP
53
Maybe Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the Battle of the Potomac on Friday, after all. He probably knew no number of thank yous would mollify Donald Trump, and may have wanted a public fight to solidify European support. To the extent that was his goal, he won bigly, but still had the grace to thank the American people once again for their support after he arrived in London for a summit with European leaders. The summit was organized by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, so it was not strictly an E.U. affair, and also included leaders from Turkey and Norway—which are in Europe (partly, in the case of Turkey), but not in the E.U. All the leaders welcomed Zelenskyy with open arms:
Also present were NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Rutte was Prime Minister of the Netherlands for 14 years, the longest term in Dutch history. He knows a thing or two about politics. In an interview with the BBC, he thanked Trump effusively for all that he had done to help Ukraine. Then he added that he "knew as a fact that the American administration is extremely invested in making sure that Ukraine gets to a durable peace." When talking to Trump, no matter how indirectly, flattery beats facts every time. Rutte has this down pat.
Yesterday, Von der Leyen said that Europe urgently needs to rearm to show the U.S. that Europe is ready to defend democracy.
Host Starmer said that Ukraine has the full backing of the U.K. He offered a $2.84 billion loan as the first step. What's next? Offensive weapons that can hit Moscow? British boots on the ground? We'll see.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Zelenskyy before the meeting and called for calm. He understands that much as the Ukrainian might want to dump on Trump for ambushing him, he has to continue flattering him to avoid making a bad situation worse. That could be important if Senate Republicans begin to openly side with Ukraine. Remember, it takes only four Republican senators to tank Trump's legislative plans. It is not unthinkable that four Republican senators might introduce some amendment to a bill Trump wants and announce that if it is stripped, they will vote "no" on the bill. Maybe Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME), Mitch McConnell (KY) and John Curtis (UT) can sign a legislative suicide pact with each other, or something. Collins is the only one up next year and she needs Democratic votes to win. Then Trump might be forced into reversing himself on Ukraine.
Not all European leaders were supportive of Zelenskyy. Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a pro-Russia hardliner, said that his country will not provide any military or financial aid to Ukraine. He also said he wants Ukraine to reopen the transit of Russian gas to Europe and threatened to veto any action at the European Council meeting on Thursday. On the other hand, Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is friendly with Trump, is a strong supporter of Ukraine and reiterated that. (V)