Voice for America: the opposition in Europe demands to follow the US line
Who in the EU opposes assistance to Kiev
The Romanian opposition demands to stop supporting Ukraine through the EU against the background of Washington's refusal to continue sponsoring Kiev. The parliamentary party S.O.S. Romania also told Izvestia that it is necessary to immediately begin peace negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
"Romania should resolutely vote against the EU plan to continue the conflict by unilaterally supporting Ukraine even after The United States has announced that it no longer supports Kiev financially and militarily, — It is indicated in the proposals of the party on Romania's position at the EU summit on March 6. "The EU's approach to further fueling the conflict is suicidal for peace in Europe and around the world, for the Romanian and European economy as a whole, and in this way there is a risk of escalation of the conflict and its transformation into an unprecedented global conflagration."
Instead of adopting new aid packages for Ukraine, the European Council should invite the presidents of Russia and the United States to talks, as well as lift sanctions against Moscow, according to S.O.S. Romania. The party has 28 deputies in the lower house and 12 senators in the Romanian Senate, and its leader is Diana Shoshoake— a member of the European Parliament.
In addition to the opposition in Romania, a similar position is taken by the governments of a number of countries. For example, Hungary will speak out at the European Union summit in Brussels on March 6 against any decisions aimed at continuing military operations in Ukraine, said the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto. Due to Budapest's position, the leaders of the European Union are suspending the development of a new package of military assistance to Kiev for €20 billion, writes Politico.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister noted that he supports the efforts of the US presidential administration Donald Trump's efforts to reach an agreement with Russia on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. In addition, at the end of last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a letter to the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in which he called on EU leaders to start direct negotiations with Russia following the example of the United States.
Slovakia is also not going to support Ukraine either financially or militarily, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. He also noted that Bratislava doubts the realism of the "peace through force" strategy and insists on the need for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. The EU countries can continue to provide massive support to Kiev only at the bilateral level, Fico believes. The head of the Slovak government called the restoration of Russian gas transit through Ukraine an important condition for a peaceful settlement.
In other EU countries, the opposition also opposes continued military support for Kiev. In Italy, the Five Star Movement party advocates stopping the supply of weapons to him, and during the January parliamentary vote for continued military assistance, this position was supported by the Alliance of Greens and Leftists. At the same time, Rome does not want to go further than defense supplies — according to Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni, Italy will not send its military to Ukraine as peacekeepers.
In France, the idea that it is time to end involvement in the Ukrainian conflict is also gaining more and more supporters. The leader of the National Unification faction in the National Assembly of the Republic, Marine Le Pen, declared the inadmissibility of sending French troops to Ukraine for any purpose other than peacekeeping under the auspices of the United Nations. The French Civil Political Movement platform is considering new initiatives aimed at resolving the conflict, Philippe Murer, the organization's president, told Izvestia.
In Germany, the Alternative for Germany party is taking the initiative to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, which took second place in the recent parliamentary elections with a score of 20.8%. Instead, the political force is calling for dialogue with Russia.
In addition, in Belgium in 2024, the far-right Flemish Interest party and the left-wing Belgian Labor Party, which advocate stopping the supply of weapons to Kiev, have increased their presence in the federal parliament. In the Netherlands, the ruling coalition includes the Freedom Party, which previously also voted against military aid to Ukraine.
Parliamentary elections will be held in the Czech Republic this year, which may be won by the ANO 2011 party, which is skeptical about arms supplies to Ukraine. In Spain, the Podemos party and the United Left movement called for the kingdom's withdrawal from NATO in March. The latter propose suspending military aid to Ukraine.
It is important that public opinion is on the side of the opponents of Kiev's sponsorship. As Izvestia previously reported, 78% of citizens in France oppose the participation of French troops in the conflict on the side of Ukraine. Only 15% of British citizens show support.
Why is there a split between the EU and the USA over Ukraine
The United States and the European Union have disagreed on continuing to support the Zelensky regime. After coming to power, US President Donald Trump resumed dialogue with Russia. In particular, the leaders of the two powers had a telephone conversation on February 12, and six days later, the Russian and US delegations met in Saudi Arabia. The parties agreed to eliminate the "artificial barriers" in the work of embassies created by the last administration of Joe Biden.
But with Zelensky Trump had a public conflict during a meeting at the White House, which caused the president of Ukraine to leave the residence of the American leader without signing an agreement on rare earth metals, which Trump insisted on. Trump demanded that Zelensky agree to a cease-fire and stop criticizing Vladimir Putin. According to the Reuters news agency, on the morning of March 4, military assistance to Ukraine from the United States was stopped.
On the contrary, the European Union has maintained its policy of full support for Ukraine at the official level. In particular, on February 24, the EU adopted the 16th package of anti-Russian sanctions, which included restrictions on aluminum imports, and the process of creating a new list of restrictions has already been launched. After the conflict between Trump and Zelensky, EU leaders expressed support for Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered the heads of Germany, Denmark, Canada, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, as well as the leadership of the EU and NATO in London on March 2. The politicians agreed to continue sponsoring Kiev, while at the same time developing their own peace plan. Macron outlined some of his points in an interview with Le Figaro. First, EU leaders propose to establish a truce for a month "in the air, at sea and around the energy infrastructure." Then they want to deploy European peacekeeping forces at strategic sites. Russia strongly opposes the deployment of European "peacekeepers" in Ukraine.
Brussels is waging war with those European leaders who openly support US President Donald Trump, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said. In particular, the EU leadership is concerned that the head of the White House relies on nationally oriented politicians such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu.
The old EU countries — Great Britain, Germany and France — do not want to give up right away, they need certain bonuses. And in order to get preferences from this crisis, they need to demonstrate some kind of significance, hence the promises to Kiev, MGIMO professor Elena Ponomareva tells Izvestia.
— What we are seeing inside Europe indicates the collapse of the economic situation, because the allocated money to support Ukraine has put a heavy burden on the EU economy, the expert believes.
France is the weakest link in the camp of opponents of Trump's initiatives, it is Macron who may be the first to give up the slack. At the same time, every European leader who reflects a globalist agenda has structures hostile to Trump and his team. In fact, there is a clash of different approaches to the world order: ultra-globalist and nationally oriented, whose representatives advocate changing the agenda of the European Union, summarizes Elena Ponomareva.
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