Trump has dudded Ukraine. Can Europe come to its rescue?

Events move so fast in Trump-world that yesterday’s pledges are quickly forgotten in tomorrow’s bombast about what comes next, turning everything into a blur. Almost six months after Donald Trump took office for his second term, his promise to end the war in Ukraine “on day one” seems lost in a blizzard of tough talk.

Did Trump really say he could bring the fighting to a halt so fast? In fact, he often said he would end the war between his election on November 5 and his inauguration on January 20. He promised at least 53 times to end the war before or just after taking power, according to an impressive tally by CNN.

Illustration by Dionne Gain.Credit:

“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine totally settled,” he said in July 2023. He was still making his empty claim in October last year, only weeks before election day. “I will settle the war in Ukraine before I even take office,” he said.

Normal politicians suffer the humiliation of being reminded of their big and catastrophically broken promises, but Trump is shameless. He has been played by Russian President Vladimir Putin in repeated conversations about a ceasefire, but he talks as if he is winning.

Putin, on the other hand, has exactly what he wants: an American president who starves Ukraine of weapons and starts arguments with NATO allies. The big decision of last week – to freeze US weapons shipments to Ukraine and deny Patriot missile defence systems – was an incredible victory for Russia.

And how did Putin respond? Not with a ceasefire, but with an even greater bombardment of Kyiv and other civilian targets with ballistic missiles and Shahed drones. The nightly attacks have intensified. Six died in the attacks on Saturday night.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has done everything Trump demanded since the ugly spectacle of the Oval Office argument in February. He accepted the steps to a ceasefire and offered mining rights to rare earths, just as the Americans asked. And he was dudded anyway. No matter what Ukraine does, Trump chooses the option that favours Putin.

European leaders watch this startling American retreat and talk as if the transatlantic partnership is strong, while actively considering how to fill the void. This will be urgent business on Thursday in London when British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron hold another meeting of the European group that seeks to help Ukraine – their coalition of the willing.

That coalition remains a loose group of nations with an even looser set of commitments. The two leading members are willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, but others are vague with their pledges. (Australia sent a representative to observe previous coalition meetings after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was willing to consider helping the cause. Former Liberal leader Peter Dutton ruled this out, but siding with Trump did not help him when the election came.)

The big shift among European leaders is the hardening in their language about military options. This is not just about meeting Trump’s demand to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – a long-term aspiration. It is about doing more – fast – to help Ukraine, and in doing so, helping themselves.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a key figure now that Denmark has taken the presidency of the EU for the second half of this year, summed this up at a press conference with Zelensky and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last Thursday.

“The war in Ukraine has never been only about Ukraine – it’s about Europe,” she said in Aarhus. “All of us hope that [the] US will continue their support for Ukraine, and because of Ukraine, for Europe. But if there are any gaps, then I personally believe that we should be willing to fill in.”

The ambition is clear. The capacity, however, is not. The huge question in Europe is whether the major powers have the industrial capacity – the sheer military muscle – to match Russia at a time when Putin shows no sign of stopping the war in Ukraine and every sign he wants to start fights elsewhere. The latest evidence is in Azerbaijan, where Russia is turning on its former ally.

Can Europe counter Putin in the grim scenario of outright war? No less than Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, admits the Europeans do not have the military might they need.

“We have an enormous geopolitical challenge on our hands,” Rutte told The New York Times in a sobering interview on the weekend. “And that is first of all Russia, which is reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history. They are now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year.”

Put simply, the blockades and sanctions are not enough. Russia is rebuilding. Rutte added a warning about China’s military ambitions, as well. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – the CRINKs – are sharing military technology in a way that steadily increases the risk to the West.

The Shahed drones that deliver death from the air show the CRINK economic model in action. The drones are based on an Iranian design but have been adapted by Russia in more lethal versions. They are made in Russia using parts from China. One day soon, according to Japanese news site NHK, they may be assembled by visiting North Korean workers.

The argument about defence spending as a percentage of GDP in 2030 seems hopelessly abstract in the light of concrete facts. Right now, for all its economic wealth, western Europe lacks the capacity to match Putin where it counts – in the missile bombardment seen over Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center left, visits an exhibition of the All-Russian People’s Front called “All for victory!” in Moscow. Credit: AP

Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as the HUR, estimates Russia is producing 60 to 70 of its Iskander ballistic missiles and more than 10 of the hypersonic Kinzhals each month. That suggests an annual tally of 960 – although it is obviously difficult to be certain.

That sum is greater than the American production of Patriot air defence missiles – the essential systems Trump is denying Ukraine. Lockheed-Martin has increased annual output of the Patriot PAC-3 MSE to 400 units a year and is aiming for 500 this year and 650 in a few years’ time.

So America has the stockpiles to help Ukraine, but it also has a challenge in matching Putin.

Europe, meanwhile, is struggling to keep up. Fabian Hoffmann, a research fellow at the University of Oslo and a non-resident fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, says the European public will be “enraged” if war comes and civilians discover the failure of their leaders to invest in missile defence.

Hoffmann estimates Europe’s annual production of the PAC-3 MSE interceptor is about 550 units a year. Europe makes other defence systems, so this is not the full picture, but he believes the number of available systems is far too low.

European leaders have responded to this moment with fine words. They know they must do what Trump will not. But the meeting this Thursday may only highlight the severe challenge in turning words into actions.

This is a shocking state for Europe more than a decade after Putin began his military incursion into Ukraine and more than three years after he launched a full-scale war that is dominated by missile and drone attacks. Putin told the world about the future of war. Too many were too slow to listen.

David Crowe is Europe correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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