EU leaders gather in Kiev to strengthen Europe

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the outbreak of a large-scale military conflict with the Russian Federation, the heads of the European Commission and the European Council and leaders of several countries arrived in Kiev to participate in the “Support Ukraine” summit. As follows from the statements of the guests, one of the goals of the mass gathering was also the desire to support the European leadership in the face of heightened disagreements with Washington, including on the Ukrainian issue.

On Monday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Antonio Costa arrived in Kiev to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine on the occasion of the third anniversary of the outbreak of the armed confrontation with Russia on February 24, 2022 and to promise it further support.

“In this struggle for survival, not only the fate of Ukraine is at stake. This is the fate of Europe,” the head of the European Commission repeated her usual thesis on social networks upon arrival in the Ukrainian capital.

It was also reported that in addition to the leaders of the European Union, accompanied by almost two dozen European commissioners, the leaders of Canada and the Baltic states arrived in Kiev, and a number of other government leaders planned to participate in the summit via video link. At the beginning of the visit, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced the allocation of 100 million euros for the Ukrainian air defense. He also noted that strengthening Ukraine helps to increase overall security.

Ursula von der Leyen herself informed that in March Kiev will receive a new payment of 3.5 billion euros to the EU. In total, the member states of the European Community provided Ukraine with assistance in the amount of 134 billion euros. “This is more than anyone else. Thanks to our mechanism in Ukraine and the G7 loan, we have closed Ukraine’s budget deficit for the whole of 2025,” the head of the European Commission said. According to her, the allies should also accelerate the immediate delivery of weapons to Kiev, which they will do in the coming weeks.

Such statements in the Kiev media were called especially important after US President Donald Trump expressed his intention to sharply reduce aid to Ukraine, as well as force it to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the military conflict. To influence Washington’s approaches, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to the United States on Monday to meet with the American leader.

The head of European diplomacy, Kaya Kallas, also joined the correspondence with the head of the White House. As follows from her comments made public on the same day, the latest statements by representatives of the American administration contained “Russian narratives.” However, any peace agreement cannot work without involving the EU and Ukraine in the negotiation process, Kallas said. She also declared it impossible to organize new Ukrainian elections under martial law, which Washington had previously called for.

At the same time, Callas announced that she would also travel to the United States on February 25 to discuss with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the prospects for bilateral relations and the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

Interestingly, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference the day before that he was ready to leave the presidency in order to achieve peace. “If peace is for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready. I can change it to NATO,” Zelensky clarified. And he assured me that he does not intend to be in power for decades. However, he immediately added that the very issue of holding Ukrainian elections had become a form of pressure on Kiev. In his opinion, it is completely unclear how an election campaign can be organized now, for example, abroad, where millions of Ukrainian citizens have left, as well as in territories beyond Kiev’s control, and even more so at the front.

Moreover, it followed from his explanations that during the summit with foreign partners, first of all, it was planned to discuss military issues, and in particular the priority development of unmanned technologies and electronic warfare. Among other things, it was supposed to arrange consultations on security guarantees for Ukraine in one of the European capitals, Zelensky stressed.

In a comment for NG, Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, did not rule out that the organizers of the summit could pursue several goals. Although, of course, it became relevant with the beginning of the dialogue between Russia and the United States on the prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis, with the insistence of a number of countries, primarily the EU and Britain, to infiltrate the negotiation process in order to prevent its success and harm Russia.

“European leaders are primarily focused on preventing Moscow from winning and turning out to be a winner. Although not only the Russian Federation, but also all those involved in it, including the Ukrainian side, would benefit from ending the military conflict. From this point of view, European representatives are, of course, plotting against peace. And they clearly want to create difficulties in developing the peaceful formula that the Russians and Americans have already been puzzled by. Therefore, they also seek to be at the negotiating table in order to create obstacles there, and not just in the media, which they are actively engaged in today,” Zatulin explained.

In this regard, in his opinion, the Kiev event is also designed to give additional sound to the announced visits to the United States by British and French emissaries Starmer and Macron. “That’s the main thing. But at the same time, the aforementioned summit should strengthen the support of the Kiev authorities among the local population. Residents of Ukraine are urged to ignore the difficulties and sacrifices and believe that abroad will help them. But then I remember another famous phrase from the Soviet classics – “blow a whistle in Europe.” Today, Tweety, or Ukraine, is still rushing to Europe. Although, in fact, she would not have to run anywhere, since the Ukrainian state, like the Russian one, is located in Europe. While Zelensky, along with the Kiev beau monde, are trying to escape from the reckoning by fleeing to European structures and at the same time continue to saw the powerful “weight” in their hands in the hope that it will turn out to be golden,” concluded the first deputy chairman of the Duma committee.

Meanwhile, there were reports of fresh opinion poll results, with even more optimistic indicators of support for President Zelensky at 63% against the 57% level announced by the Kiev media last week. However, in the course of closed studies, according to journalists, this rating was only 15.9%. According to Donald Trump, it has reached 4%.

The results of new research on the attitudes of Ukrainian residents in the context of ongoing hostilities have also appeared. Three years ago, 68% of respondents believed that things were moving in the right direction overall, while 16% held the opposite opinion, but the situation has gradually changed. According to the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in early February 2025, 46% of respondents said that things were going in the wrong direction, while 38% considered it correct.