By In just days, the Trump administration has torn up Washington’s script on the war in Ukraine and its relationship with Europe. Now, even as the U.S. and Russia press ahead with peace talks that exclude Kyiv, Ukraine’s European neighbors are struggling to unite around a shared response.
French President Emmanuel Macron was preparing to host his second set of emergency talks this week in Paris on Wednesday, amid mounting pressure to form a clear and cohesive response to Trump’s decision to negotiate directly — and so far exclusively — with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
“The understanding that Europe is going to be treated in a very different way by this administration is something that’s left European leaders stunned,” John Lough, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program in London, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Macron hosted talks on Monday after President Donald Trump excluded European leaders, including members of NATO, from ceasefire talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.
Talks on Wednesday will include NATO-constituent Canada and Ukraine’s neighbors from Europe’s Baltic and Nordic regions, according to a spokesperson from the Élysée Palace.
