JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
As President Trump pressures Ukraine to make concessions to Moscow, European leaders are trying to keep Kyiv in the fight and avoid one themselves. Teri Schultz reports from Brussels.
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: Kaja Kallas has never been shy about criticizing the Kremlin, but this week, the EU foreign policy chief turned her fire on Washington.
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KAJA KALLAS: Although American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender, why Ukraine hasn't surrendered on Putin's terms is because Europe has been supporting Ukraine. And we don't have a choice.
SCHULTZ: The same day, Norway and Finland hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. Zelenskyy had asked for the meeting as his relations with President Trump spiraled downward. Europeans worried both about Ukraine and their own strained ties with the White House as they sought to shore up Zelenskyy.
On the table in Oslo, new proposals for peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, which Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Europe had helped draft. Witkoff hand-carried the proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Minna Alander with the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies says, while it's encouraging Europeans were at least involved in this latest initiative, the lack of progress is extremely frustrating.
MINNA ALANDER: It's like a Groundhog Day kind of feeling. They keep getting back to the same initial point, which is that the Trump administration's view of how to end this war is to force Ukraine into a bad settlement.
SCHULTZ: Alander says, that's meant Europe, Ukraine's main backer, is facing a cold, hard reality and increasingly deciding to stand up for itself and Ukraine, even if that means rebuffing Trump.
ALANDER: The European leaders sort of looked into this abyss that it would be if the U.S. actually succeeded with that and realized, like, we cannot let this happen.
SCHULTZ: Traditionally polite diplomatic facades are starting to slip as Europeans tentatively test their abilities to withstand both a retreating U.S. and an aggressive Russia. One example is Estonia, a Russian neighbor, whose Prime Minister Kristen Michal still calls the US a reliable ally in NATO. But at last week's EU summit, he openly rejected Trump's demand that Ukraine stop strikes on Russian oil refineries.
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PRIME MINISTER KRISTEN MICHAL: Sometimes even good friends need a remind what is right. The faster all the Russian refineries and the ability to sell energy will be blown to smithereens, the better because Russia is funding the war with that.
SCHULTZ: Minna Alander says a year ago, before trust in the U.S. was so damaged, you wouldn't have heard such a thing.
ALANDER: Exactly the fact that even a country like Estonia is going this far and being this outspoken, it says everything. People just really have lost hope that this can be repaired. They have to make sure that they have a Plan B, C and D.
SCHULTZ: But Plan A is still helping Ukraine win the war so it doesn't come to other parts of Europe. And while Washington restarts imports of Russian diesel, putting more money in Kremlin hands, Europe insists on heading in the opposite direction, emphasized by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the EU summit, standing next to Zelenskyy.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: One thing is absolutely clear - we will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war.
SCHULTZ: The 22nd package of EU penalties against Moscow is now under negotiation. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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