By Steve Hendrix and Mariana Alfaro
Monday March 3, 2025
LONDON — Rattled European leaders on Sunday said they were “doubling down” on supporting Ukraine and boosting military aid following the televised Oval Office blowup between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The embattled Zelensky was greeted with cheers outside 10 Downing Street and a warm hug from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he arrived late Saturday for an emergency summit of European leaders. The pair embraced again at the start of the session Sunday, which Starmer described as a “once-in-a-generation moment” for European security, and they sat side-by-side during the talks.
The display of support stood in stark contrast with comments Sunday from Trump administration officials, who heaped blame on Zelensky for the White House uproar. National security adviser Michael Waltz described Zelensky’s behavior as “incredibly disrespectful,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused him of disrupting U.S. efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.
The London gathering, which included the leaders of Germany, France, Canada and other nations, did not produce a formal statement. But participants agreed to sustain or boost military aid flowing to Ukraine, Starmer told reporters afterward, and to insist that Kyiv be directly involved in any negotiations with Moscow to end the war.
Starmer, who has talked to Trump at least twice since the Zelensky meeting, said the gathering solidified Britain’s own commitment to Ukraine.
“We are doubling down,” he said. He announced a new $2.7 billion loan for Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, and $2 billion in export financing to help Kyiv purchase air defense missiles manufactured in Belfast.
Europe’s aim now, he said, was to arm Ukraine sufficiently so that it could begin any peace talks from a position of strength. Countries have expressed interest in joining a “coalition of the willing” to help monitor a ceasefire, he said, but no formal commitments have been announced.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom also met with Trump last week, were working to shape a diplomatic cleanup of U.S.-Ukrainian relations, Starmer said. The two and “possibly one or two others” would act as mediators between Washington and Kyiv, seeking a ceasefire plan acceptable to Ukraine and Europe that they could present to Trump.
Immediately after the summit, Zelensky flew by helicopter to an audience with King Charles III at Sandringham, the monarch’s country retreat. Zelensky, who on Friday left the White House early after the fractious exchange with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, said the king’s invitation made him “very happy.”
Starmer also extended a royal invitation to Trump, and a full-blown state visit, at their Thursday meeting at the White House, as part of his own attempt to shore up American support for Ukraine.
The prime minister, asked Sunday whether he trusted Trump, answered yes, saying he believed Trump was sincere in his desire for a lasting peace in Ukraine. But he acknowledged that the Oval Office verbal brawl made him squirm.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday’s summit, which was planned before Zelensky’s meeting with Trump, was meant to make clear that Europe remained committed to the embattled country.
Following the meeting, she told reporters that Europe needed “a surge” in military spending to rearm itself.
Starmer and Macron made clear they would continue their campaign to rescue at least some American backing for Ukraine, even as they confronted growing evidence that Trump’s pivot toward Putin could be genuine and lasting, and that Europe would be forced to take on more of Ukraine’s — and possibly its own — defense.
“Beyond the frayed nerves, everybody should return to calm, respect and recognition, so we can move forward concretely, because what’s at stake is too important,” Macron told French reporters late Saturday.
Macron said Zelensky had told him that he was willing to “restore dialogue” with the United States, including on a negotiated U.S.-Ukrainian minerals agreement that went unsigned during his abortive Washington visit.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has established warmer relations with Trump than most leaders in Western Europe, meeting with him three times since Trump’s reelection.
The right-wing leader suggested Sunday that Italy could “play a key role in bridge-building.” But the White House meltdown puts her in a squeeze between Trump, other European leaders and her rivals at home. Meloni has staunchly backed Ukraine and opposed Russia, even against pushback from within her ruling coalition. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, a political rival, lashed out repeatedly at Ukraine over the weekend and called on Italy to side with Trump on ending the war.
The Italian press has featured interviews with Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-born New York real estate investor known as a close Trump ally. During a tour through Italy, Zampolli made clear Trump’s antipathy for Zelensky and the anger Meloni could face from the right for backing him.
“Meloni’s position on Ukraine must change,” Zampolli told the Italian outlet Il Foglio. “[Trump] doesn’t like it.”
Trump officials lined up Sunday to pin the White House blowup on Zelensky.
Rubio accused the Ukrainian president of foiling Trump’s plans to strike a ceasefire with Russia, claiming Zelensky disrupted American efforts to get Putin to the negotiating table.
“That’s our goal,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC News’s “This Week.” “Don’t do anything to disrupt that. And that’s what Zelensky did, unfortunately. He found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue.”
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s national intelligence director, said Zelensky “directly challenged” Trump in the Oval Office and “showed his lack of interest in any good-faith negotiations.”
“There’s going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good-faith negotiations before President Trump is going to be willing to reengage on this,” Gabbard told “Fox News Sunday.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Zelensky “berated and interrupted his host … instead of expressing gratitude for the extraordinary help that the U.S. has provided his country [and that] effectively helped him stay alive and in power.”
Trump, Johnson said, “is the only figure on the entire globe who is powerful enough to bring both of these parties to the table, and he was in the process of doing that, and he was very, I think, excited about the deal that was going to be consummated. But President Zelensky went in and blew it up.”
At least one Republican lawmaker disagreed with that characterization.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), who has supported U.S. aid to Ukraine in its battle against Russia, told “Meet the Press” that Zelensky was “rightfully” seeking assurances that Washington would provide security if Putin were to violate a peace agreement — as he has done in the past.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said calls by some Republicans for Zelensky to resign were “horrific.”
“Zelensky is leading a country, trying to defend democracy against an authoritarian dictator, Putin, who invaded his country,” he told NBC.
Starmer called the London summit before the White House meeting as a follow-up to two gatherings of European heads of state, who have struggled to respond to Trump’s upending of long-entrenched security and trade norms.
The British leader continued his push to place London at the forefront of Europe’s response to the Trump upheavals. Starmer fast-tracked a surge in British defense spending Saturday and pledged troops as a main part of a potential future European security force in Ukraine. On Sunday, he called on other European governments to grow their militaries and to join a “coalition of the willing” in taking up the slack in Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expressed optimism that Europe’s breach with Trump could be healed.
Andrew Ackerman and Ariana Eunjung Cha in Washington, Ellen Francis in Brussels and Anthony Faiola in Rome contributed to this report.