EU leaders hold talks to boost military budgets

French President Emmanuel Macron says Europe must be ready against the Russian threat, in case its traditional ally, the United States, is no longer by its side.
European Union leaders hold emergency talks in Brussels – the first summit of 27 nations since the explosive meeting last week between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also expected to attend.EU Commission president affirms support for Zelenskyy, ‘just’ peace
Amid the EU summit in Brussel, Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc is reiterating its backing of the Ukrainian president and “a just, lasting peace for Ukraine”.

Von der Leyen also talked up a proposal to beef up Europe’s military spending with hundreds of billions of dollars.

“With our ReArm Europe plan, we will speed up delivery of the weapons and ammunition for Ukraine,” she wrote in a social media post. “We’re making our entire continent safer.”EU Council pushes Commission, Slovakia, and Ukraine ‘on gas transit issue’: Report
The European Council will ask the European Commission, Slovakia and Ukraine to intensify efforts towards “finding workable solutions to the gas transit issue”, including through resumption, according to draft conclusions seen by Reuters news agency.

Before today’s extraordinary summit, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has also rejected military aid to Ukraine, said that he wanted a mention of reopening Russian gas transit through Ukraine – a major route of energy for Slovakia which Kyiv stopped this year – as part of summit conclusions.Poland and Baltic nations welcome Macron’s nuclear deterrent proposal
Poland and the Baltic nations have welcomed a proposal by Macron to launch talks about using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian threats, a move Moscow quickly has dismissed as “extremely confrontational”.

On Wednesday, Macron said he has decided to open a “strategic debate” on using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect its European allies amid concerns over potential US disengagement. The French president described Moscow as a “threat to France and Europe” in a televised address to the nation.

France is the only nuclear power in the European Union.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Macron’s speech was “extremely confrontational”.

“One can conclude that France thinks more about war, about continuing the war,” he said during a regular call with journalists.