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French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Thursday that Europe may be left to carry the burden of supporting Ukraine as U.S. backing declines, saying Kyiv cannot sustain its defence against Russia without European military and financial support.
Macron made the warning on his arrival at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, where close to 50 European leaders gathered with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the war and Europe's role in the peace talks.
"Without Europe, there is no support for Ukraine," Macron said. "There is no more U.S. support. At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security."
Macron also called for a clear, united European vision on Ukraine, after two days of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Abu Dhabi earlier this week. "I think that today, above all, Europe needs a clear and united vision of what it wants," he said in Dublin, according to Reuters.
The French president is using the Dublin summit to put forward a proposal for key principles on the future of European security, aimed at showing that Europeans are taking responsibility, and assuming greater responsibility, for their own security, according to a source at the Elysee Palace.
Europe has already become Ukraine's main backer. Most direct U.S. financial and military assistance to Ukraine ended in early 2025, and Europe has since emerged as the country's most important financial and military supporter, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The gap Europe must fill is growing. Kyiv faces a 70 billion euro shortfall in 2027, of which about 45 billion euros would fall to the European Union, and Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will need almost $80 billion in additional funding next year to cover defence spending and keep the country running. The EU's 90 billion euro Ukraine Support Loan, finalised in April, is now the most important single element of aid to Kyiv through the end of 2027. EU leaders are due to discuss Ukraine's financing again at an informal meeting in Dublin on Friday.
Macron has warned before that Europe must be ready to support Ukraine without the United States. In a televised address to the French nation in March 2025, he said: "I want to believe that the U.S. will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case." At a summit of the "coalition of the willing" in Paris later that month, he said Europe had to prepare for a situation in which the Americans "won't join in" a force to secure any peace deal.
Zelenskyy has said he wants Europeans "on equal terms in these negotiations next time," after the Abu Dhabi talks were held without them. He is expecting an update from U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who led the American side in Abu Dhabi, and European leaders in Dublin are pressing for a seat at the table before any decisions on European security are taken without them.
Meanwhile, thousands of European troops are training in Poland this week for a possible post-war mission in Ukraine. Exercise Koalicja, running from November 9 to November 22, brings together 2,800 troops from 11 nations in the first major exercise of the UK-France-led Multinational Force Ukraine, which would help regenerate Ukraine's armed forces and provide reassurance inside the country once a credible ceasefire is in place.