'Crunch time' for Europe and Ukraine as membership of Nato dropped

European leaders struggle for a unified front after Trump's 'weak' jibe

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas wants "real troops, real capabilities" for Ukraine. Reuters

European leaders on Monday held meetings in Brussels and Berlin to strengthen Ukraine's position in US-brokered peace talks with Russia.

The stakes are high for Europe after its leaders received scathing criticism from US President Donald Trump, who described them as “weak”.

They fear that an agreement on terms that place Ukraine at a disadvantage will embolden Russia to attack other European countries in the future.

“We have to be really clear eyed,” the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said as she arrived at the meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers.

Kaja Kallas rings a bell at the start of an EU Foreign Affairs Council roundtable. Reuters

“In the last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries, some as many as three or four times. None of those countries has ever attacked Russia.”

European foreign ministers met one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to drop his country's bid to join Nato to move forward talks in Berlin with US negotiators.

'Real troops'

“It's crunch time for Europe and Ukraine,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. While Copenhagen would have “preferred a Ukrainian Nato membership”, he added, it will accommodate Mr Zelenskyy's proposal to give it up “in order to compromise”.

“We have to ensure other kinds of guarantees exactly as strong as Article Five,” Mr Løkke Rasmussen added, referring to Nato's cornerstone policy that an attack against one is the same as an attack against all.

Ukraine needs more than “papers or promises”, Ms Kallas said. “They have to be real troops, real capabilities, so that Ukraine is able to defend itself.”

Mr Zelenskyy's delegation held more than five hours of talks on Sunday with Mr Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“The most important thing is that the plan should be as fair as possible, first and foremost for Ukraine, because Russia started the war,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

Later on Monday, the Ukrainian President is scheduled to attend a dinner hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with leaders from France, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, the Netherlands and Norway. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte is also expected to join.

Frozen Russian assets

The EU is Ukraine's biggest financial donor, but divisions have stalled a move strongly backed by Germany, France and the Baltic States to seize frozen Russian assets to issue a €210 billion ($246 billion) loan to Ukraine, which some observers have predicted could run out of money by April.

The move is legally sound because it is not a confiscation, they argue, as the funds would be reimbursed should Russia financially compensate Ukraine for its 2022 attempted invasion. Few, however, believe that Russia would do that.

“No kind of claims from Russia will be possible before Russia compensates for everything, all the damage they have been doing to Ukraine,” Estonian Foreign Minister Marcus Tsakhna said. “We are not talking about €210 billion worth of damage. We are talking about more than 500 or 600 billion.”

Belgium's Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot, second left, speaks with from left, Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, Romania's Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Toiu, European Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Hadja Lahbib and Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno. AP Photo

The reparations loan is the “only option” to finance Ukraine's needs, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said. He added that his colleagues at the European Council need to “put your money where your mouth is”.

Another option suggested was to issue Eurobonds, but this “did not fly” when first proposed two years ago, Ms Kallas said, as states are reluctant to use taxpayer money amid budget restrictions.

Belgian reluctance

Belgium, the country where most of the frozen Russian assets are based, has been vocal in its criticism of the plan for weeks, fearing it will have to reimburse Russian alone with taxpayers' money if Moscow sues in an international court.

Italy, Malta and Bulgaria also voiced their opposition last week. Hungary and Slovakia, the two EU countries most aligned with Russia, are also expected to oppose it. To be adopted, the plan needs a qualified majority – meaning 55 per cent of member states representing 65 per cent of the bloc's population.

While EU leaders have in the past found creative ways to bypass repeated Hungarian opposition to pro-Ukraine decisions, they are unlikely to do the same to Belgium. “I think it's important that they are on board whatever we do,” Ms Kallas said.

Ms Kallas, who is also a former Estonian prime minister, added that “some countries in Europe are more used to the threats presented by Russia than others, and I want to tell you that these are only threats if we keep united”.

Last week, EU leaders sought to bypass the risk of a Hungarian on Russia's frozen assets in Europe by indefinitely freezing them. The assets had been immobilised since 2022 but necessitated a renewal every six months.

Speaking in Brussels, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described it as a “very significant decision”. It demonstrates that “Europeans have decided to take their destiny into their own hands”.