Macron: Europe Must Be Ready to Defend Ukraine Without the Help of the United States

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening that Europe should be prepared to defend itself and Ukraine without the help of the United States, a demand long made by President Donald Trump.

President Macron said France and the rest of Europe cannot “remain spectators” to the war in Ukraine and must seek drastic rearmament to be able to protect the continent without America. The French leader said that he “wants to believe that the United States will stay by our side” but added, “we have to be ready if that is not the case”.

“The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow. The threat is returning to the east, and the innocence of the last 30 years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, is now over,” Macron declared per Le Figaro.

Alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Macron has been leading calls to deploy a pan-European “coalition of the willing” peacekeeping force into Ukraine. However, the UK and others in Europe have signalled that such a military operation should only be carried out with the backing of the United States to underwrite their security.

The Trump administration has argued that any European peacekeeping mission in Ukraine should not be considered an act of NATO, as the troops on the ground could serve as a tripwire for a direct conflict between Russia and the United States, the world’s two largest nuclear powers. The White House instead has said that an economic alliance with Ukraine, in the form of a large-scale mineral rights deal, could serve as a deterrent against future Russian aggression.

Macron welcomed recent movement towards peace, initiated by President Trump, but said: “The path to peace cannot be through the abandonment of Ukraine. Peace cannot be concluded at any cost and under Russian diktat. Peace cannot be the surrender of Ukraine.”

Citing the failed European-led Minsk agreement of 2014, the French president said that a deal between Kyiv and Moscow should not “result in a ceasefire that would be too fragile.” Macron asserted that Ukrainian security was essential to the security of the rest of Europe.

Pointing to the war economy production of weapons, tanks, and jets managed by the Russians and the Kremlin’s plans to vastly increase the number of soldiers in service, Macron said: “Who can believe in this context that today’s Russia will stop at Ukraine? Russia has become a threat to France and Europe for years to come.”

To that end, the French president said that he plans to discuss with presumed incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and others about France’s nuclear arsenal as a deterrent for the rest of Europe, though he said that the use of nuclear weapons must remain at the discretion of the French president. He also called on his government to draft plans to reindustrialise the country to facilitate rearmament and the reduction of reliance on other nations within the supply chain.

Therefore significant investment will need to be made into defence. Macron said that it could be funded without raising taxes, through private investment and “reforms” of the French government’s spending. Yet, with politics in Paris remaining deeply fractured, with three governments falling last year and the National Assembly in an effective three-way split, it remains to be seen whether Macron will be able to steer the ship of state.

While the speech from Macron on Wednesday was critical of President Trump, including over the planned imposition of tariffs on the European Union to redress the large trade deficit and European tariffs and trade barriers on the United States, the thrust of the French president’s speech broadly fell in line with Trump’s long-stated demand that Europe fund its own defence rather than relying on the might of the U.S. military and the generosity of the American taxpayer.

Dating back to his first term in the White House, President Trump has been deeply critical of European allies failing to meet their NATO spending obligations, favouring instead to fund lavish welfare programmes.

The renewed pressure from the second Trump presidency has also seen countries like Germany, long a punching bag for Trump, announce fresh defence spending measures, with the likely coalition partner parties expected to form the next government in Berlin agreeing this week to overhaul “debt brake” borrowing restrictions to fund a trillion euro ($1.08 trillion) investment in defence and infrastructure.

Similarly, the European Union announced this week that it plans to change spending rules to allow member states to invest more in their militaries. The heads of the 27 EU member states are set to meet on Thursday in Brussels for a special session of the European Council to discuss increasing Europe’s defence capabilities and its stance toward the peace process in Ukraine.

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