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The West last week breathed a sigh of relief, believing that Washington had finally turned a corner on Ukraine after US President Donald Trump said he believed a total return of the land lost to Russia during this conflict was possible. This came after his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the fringes of the UN General Assembly.

Trump’s social media post raised the stakes and led Russia to claim that he was under the Ukrainian president’s influence when he wrote it. The catch, as is often the case with Trump, was that Europe and NATO ought to help achieve this goal and not Washington.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was seemingly alone among EU leaders in dampening the hype that accompanied Trump’s statement. He warned allies not to read too much into the president’s words, saying: “Better truth than illusions.”

Peace in Ukraine has so far eluded Trump and the Nobel Peace Prize likely weighs heavy on his heart as he sees it fading away. This is maybe what triggered this empty statement. The motive of vying for a just peace in Ukraine is absent from the US administration’s doctrine and has been all along. It is unlikely to suddenly appear, as that would require it to reconfigure its entire foreign policy agenda. Western allies ought to listen to Tusk’s skepticism and learn that mirages are unlikely to yield peace and security for Ukraine or Europe as a whole.

Western allies ought to listen to Tusk’s skepticism and learn that mirages are unlikely to yield peace and security

Mohamed Chebaro

Faced with the reality that the Ukraine war is a European problem, EU states have been working hard, scrambling all diplomatic, financial, military and security influence they can muster individually or jointly to keep Kyiv supplied and able to defend itself in this existential battle. Keeping the channels of US intelligence and satellite communications open was a hard-earned concession that Europe and NATO managed to obtain from the White House.

Another work in progress is the effort to persuade the US to grant the so-called coalition of the willing — a UK-French effort to deploy troops to guarantee postwar Ukrainian security — a clear security umbrella. Other European steps to provide funds for Ukraine and increase EU members’ defense capabilities remain far off the mark.

It is high time for EU member states and other democratic Western nations to realize that the US administration is unlikely to change its agenda, despite the occasional statement that suggests otherwise. Since Trump’s January inauguration, the road to a peace deal has been challenged by the changing dynamics between the US leader, Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Defending Ukraine from Russian aggression has traditionally had bipartisan support in the US, but this administration has consistently sat on the fence and even, on occasions, leaned more toward the Kremlin’s justifications for the war than the Western stance of upholding the international rule of law and the sanctity of state borders.

Regardless of what Trump says or does, EU leaders have been too slow to wake up to the conundrum they find themselves in

Mohamed Chebaro

Regardless of what Trump says or does, EU leaders have been too slow to wake up to the conundrum they find themselves in. It has long been clear the direction America is heading and it is also clear where Russia is heading. But the bloc that was founded to promote peace in Europe is failing to metamorphose into an alliance that can protect itself.

Look at the recent drone incursions into the airspace of EU and NATO countries and other infractions that have intensified in frequency in recent years, from cyberattacks and hacking to deniable attacks on key infrastructure, including arson, and even interfering in and manipulating elections through shady finance and tech algorithms. All this makes the picture clearer. The friends of Ukraine are under attack as they continue to grapple with how best to support Kyiv in its open war, while at the same time defending their borders and readying for eventual war. Rhetorical talk of liberating Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory does not feature in even their most positive statements.

As a result, staying the course and defending Ukraine remains crucial for the EU project, ideally with the help of the US. Without believing in the mirage of outright victory even if the US put all its weight behind Kyiv, the EU can still help defend the country. This is the only way to stop the methodical and slow work to erode democracy and chip away at the West’s social fabric, values and unity. These have upheld, until now, a world order that is tilted maybe imperfectly toward upholding freedom of expression, human rights and the rule of law, despite all its adversities and shortcomings.

• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.