Divided, reshuffled and politically bruised: Europe’s leaders head to the NATO summit

“But what Orbán’s behavior [shows] us is that NATO and the EU face a crosscutting issue of dealing with leaders or potential leaders who do not believe in, or care about, the transatlantic bond or the European project,” he added.

Splits and divisions

That means European leaders will arrive in the U.S. capital divided on both Ukraine and how to handle a potential Trump return.

Germany, alongside the U.S., is wary of Ukraine’s speedy accession to NATO while Poland (like many other countries closer to Russia) is keener on getting Ukraine into the alliance.

“If tomorrow or the day after tomorrow you don’t see an unequivocal declaration, then nothing will change in Poland’s position. We will continue to urge our allies to make this path, the path to the EU, as well as to NATO, as fast as possible for Ukraine,” Tusk told Zelenskyy in Warsaw on Monday.

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, despite her far-right politics and polls showing that half of Italians would like to stop sending weapons to Kyiv, has doubled down on her strong support for Ukraine as a ticket to the European political mainstream.

However, unlike most of her fellow European leaders, she doesn’t dread another Trump presidency: She’s the only head of a large EU country who has good relations with the former U.S. president.