European leaders have finally shed their distaste for the George W Bush-era phrase âcoalition of the willingâ. As they repeatedly convene to discuss ongoing support for Ukraine, their choice of name is both unfortunate and ironic. Europeâs leaders were once too weak to stop the USâs coalition from invading Iraq. And thus far, all their new coalition has done is highlight that itâs too weak and too indecisive to actually help Ukraine.
The coalition of the willing sounds impressive. Since February, meetings involving 30 nations have been held in Paris, London and elsewhere to discuss how to fill the vacuum left by the US pullback, and to âreassure, support and protect Ukraineâ. In early May, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and their German and Polish counterparts travelled to Kyiv, where they proposed a 30-day ceasefire and promised to âratchet up pressure on Russiaâs war machineâ.
In practice, though, the coalition remains paper thin. Europe is keen to provide Ukraine with replacements for missing US supplies, but itâs struggling to procure the weapons Kyiv needs fast enough and at a reasonable cost. Many of the commitments made will take years to appear on a battlefield. And even the promised punitive sanctions on Russia for rejecting a ceasefire amounted to little more than additional EU designations of ships transporting Russian oil.
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