A call for Europe to act as Europe

Appearing on France 24's Spotlight, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves delivered a pointed assessment of Washington's shifting approach to Russia's war on Ukraine and what it means for European security. His message was directed at European capitals: with the US tilting toward Russia, support for Zelensky can no longer be left to Washington. In his view, Ukraine is navigating an increasingly precarious diplomatic and military landscape, and that urgency demands a collective response.

Reading Washington's rapprochement with Moscow

Ilves argued that the Trump administration's apparent rapprochement with Moscow is shaped partly by domestic electoral calculations. On his reading, European support for Ukraine cannot be planned around assumptions of steady American commitment to European security.

Does Washington really hold the leverage?

He also challenged the assumption that Washington holds overwhelming leverage over Kyiv, pointing to two factors:

• •Europe's growing financial commitment to Ukrainian defence
• •the potential domestic political costs of withdrawing American intelligence support

Strategic autonomy as necessity

The obstacles, in Ilves's account, lie within Europe itself. He identified nationalist movements, competing security priorities and divergent attitudes towards Russia as threats to the continent's capacity for collective action.

Yet his conclusion was that European strategic autonomy is no longer an abstract institutional ambition but an urgent geopolitical necessity - his assessment, delivered on France 24's Spotlight, as Ukraine navigates that increasingly precarious landscape.