Ukraine War Lessons for Europe

 

Ukraine War Lessons for Europe

Deepak Razdan

Wednesday, 4 June, 2025

If the Ukraine-Russia war enters the Europe mainland, as members of the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom fear it every day, Ukraine will be its undeclared leader for Europe.

Ukraine’s Spider’s Web drone attack on far-flung Russian airfields last Sunday left little doubt about this. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the attack over phone on Wednesday, with Mr Putin saying Russia would have to respond.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s country is the only country in Europe which has fought a modern war, for over three years in a stretch, and replied drones and missiles in the same language, though not equally, but with an indefatigable spirit against a bigger and powerful rival.

The other European powers, the UK, France and Germany, two of them nuclear-armed, are strong militarily, well-stocked with deadly arsenal, but without knowledge what a drone-missile game may really entail in terms of strategic ups and downs or civilian losses.

The UK has just come out with its Strategic Defence Review to upgrade its defence capability, Germany has announced a much larger defence budget and France is offering its nuclear umbrella to other European nations.

The UK, France and Germany have been helping Ukraine with money and warfare equipment, convinced as they are that Russia is targeting the Ukrainian democracy just for its getting closer to its European neighbours.

A series of events has taken place which shows Europe is concerned about the Ukraine war and wants to learn from it.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met Mr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on 10th May and jointly issued a strong statement asking Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire or face tougher sanctions.

Ukraine is fighting the war every day, holding the Russian forces on the ground, and rejecting all conditions put by Russia for a ceasefire. Mr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out ceding any territory to Russia, or giving up Crimea which has remained under Russia’s control for years.

All this while Ukraine has been weathering Russian missiles, some of them hitting civilian areas. Mr Zelenskyy is constantly urging the US to put pressure on Russia for a ceasefire and threaten it with stronger sanctions.

The Ukraine leader has been touring the world to explain his country’s stand and seeking support in every manner, visiting 18 countries in two dozen trips since the beginning of this year.

By making several diplomatic tours in the middle of a devastating war, Mr Zelenskyy has already exhibited his leadership qualities, and his military has shown what it can do under his leadership.

The European nations were always concerned about the continuing Ukraine-Russia war in close neighbourhood. But their concern turned into fear when the US President told them that they were contributing too inadequately to the NATO military alliance fund, and should not depend on the US for their security.

This gave the European Union (EU) a sense that it was on its own, as far as its security was concerned and could not count on the US for support, in case Russia acted against EU members for helping Ukraine. The war was happening too close to them to be taken lightly.

The New World that US President’s tariff offensive created in April exposed economic inequality among nations and their helplessness to deal with it immediately.

Soon there was another realization about the lack of defence preparedness, considering the level of threat perception. There is growing pressure that NATO members should spend three per cent of their GDP on defence by 2030.

The European nations including the UK, have been since coming closer on security issues. After the Kyiv meeting, the European leaders met at the European Political Community (EPC)’s summit in the Albanian Capital Tirana on 16th May.

This meeting was attended by heads of government and State from 27 European Union (EU) member-nations and 20 non-EU countries including the UK’s Prime Minister and Mr Zelenskyy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EPC was founded to formulate a European answer to the Ukraine-Russia war and to make sure that “we have stability on the European continent.”

Mr Zelenskyy met the German Chancellor in Berlin a week ago where the Chancellor offered him new weapons with no range restrictions.

The UK Prime Minister released on 2nd June the Strategic Defence Review 2025. Introducing the document, he said “My first duty as Prime Minister is to keep the British people safe.”

He said “In this new era for defence and security, when Russia is waging war on our continent and probing our defences at home, we must meet the danger head on. We must recognise the very nature of warfare is being transformed on the battlefields of Ukraine and adapt our armed forces and our industry to lead this innovation.”

“We are delivering our commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, accelerating it to 2027, and we have set the ambition to reach 3% in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions. This investment will end the hollowing out of our armed forces and enable the UK to step up, to lead in NATO, and take greater responsibility for our collective self-defence,” Sir Keir said.

The Review has proposed strengthening each of the three wings of the armed forces, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. It also proposed to establish a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command to lead defensive and offensive cyber capabilities, as well as electromagnetic warfare - such as the ability to jam signals to drones or missiles.

The Review said that UK’s innovation will be driven by lessons from Ukraine. There will be harnessing of drones, data, and digital warfare to make the Armed Forces stronger and safer. A "10-times more lethal" army, combining air defence, artificial intelligence, long-range weapons and land drone swarms has been conceived by the Review.

Defence Ministers of Germany, UK and Ukraine met at Brussels on Wednesday to consider the Ukraine war situation where Germany and the UK committed expanding defence aid to Ukraine. A NATO Summit is due to take place on 24-25 June.