Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump – but will it? | Timothy Garton Ash

Whether using frozen Russian assets, ramping up defence production or deepening the relationship with the EU, it is up to us to secure Ukraine's future - and our own

Europe, you have been warned. President Vladimir Putin has waged a full-scale war against Ukraine for nearly four years and this week threatened that Russia was ready right now" for war with Europe if need be. President Donald Trump has demonstrated that the US is ready to sell out Ukraine for the sake of a dirty deal with Putin's Russia. His new US National Security Strategy prescribes cultivating resistance to Europe's current trajectory within European nations". How much more clarity do you need?

Now it's up to us Europeans to enable Ukraine to survive armed assault from Moscow and diplomatic betrayal from Washington. In doing so, we also defend ourselves. For a year now, people have been telling me that Trump will eventually get tough on Russia. It's been the geopolitical version of Waiting for Godot. Then his personal real-estate emissaries come up with a 28-point peace plan" that is a Russian-American imperial and commercial deal at the expense of both Ukraine and Europe.