European Union leaders will hold emergency talks in Brussels on Thursday, gathering as the Trump administration upends traditional alliances and retracts wartime backing of Ukraine.
Thursday's summit brings all 27 EU leaders together for the first time since the explosive meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, with US military aid and intelligence sharing since suspended.
The evaporation of American support has sent Ukraine's allies scrambling, with EU leaders openly questioning Washington's reliability as a security partner going forward.
While the Brussels meeting will aim to cement European support for Kiev, it is unlikely to yield any major announcements of aid beyond the 30 billion euros ($32 billion) the bloc has already committed for this year.
The stark prospect of the United States pivoting from its European alliances has, however, fuelled a growing consensus on the summit's other major topic: the need to bolster Europe's defences against Russia.
Ahead of the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out an 800 billion euro plan to "re-arm Europe" and assume responsibility for the continent's defence.
'Coalition of the willing'
The bolstering of European defences has taken on a new urgency as Trump makes clear his desire to swiftly end the Russia-Ukraine war through direct negotiations with Moscow.
His embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while expressing contempt toward Zelenksyy, has cemented fears that Kiev and Europe's interests will be overlooked in any deal to end the biggest conflict on the continent since World War II.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for a "coalition of the willing" to come together to draw up a peace plan and present it to the United States.
France and Britain have pitched a one-month truce "in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure", though not initially on the ground.
On Thursday, the bloc is expected to consider sending in an EU force to guarantee any peace deal in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, who will join the summit, has gone so far as to call for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent can no longer count on Washington.
