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Donald Tusk has arrived in Berlin with a message: It’s high time to get serious about helping Ukraine.
The Polish prime minister will sit down with Friday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron for a “Weimar Triangle” format meeting in the German capital, focused on how Europe can help Ukraine repel Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
“True solidarity with Ukraine? Less words, more ammunition,” Tusk wrote on social media on the morning of the summit.
Paris and Berlin have been feuding in recent months over their respective Ukraine strategies, as Kyiv’s forces on the battlefield bear the brunt of Western indecision and conservative American hesitancy to continue funding the war effort.
Macron has adopted increasingly hawkish rhetoric, doubling down on comments about the prospect of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine and saying Europe should not act as “cowards” in the face of Russia’s aggression.
Germany, on the other hand, accuses Paris of talking a good game while spending less than its allies to help Kyiv — a claim France has vigorously pushed back against.
Scholz has also faced criticism for his refusal to send German Taurus missiles to Ukraine, while the U.K. and France have already sent their similar long-range Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles.
Both France and Germany signed security agreements with Ukraine last month, pledging to help the fight against Russia’s invasion “for as long as it takes,” and assist Kyiv in building modern defense capacities.
In its agreement, France says it “provided Ukraine with military aid worth a total of €1.7 billion in 2022 and €2.1 billion in 2023” and will send “up to €3 billion in additional support” in 2024. Scholz noted that Germany had spent €28 billion since the start of the war.
The “Weimar Triangle” meeting is meant to produce a rare show of unity, high-level German and French officials told POLITICO.
Now, the question is whether Tusk will be able to act as a mediator between the bickering French and German leaders.
Clea Caulcutt, Hans von der Burchard and Gordon Repinski contributed to this report.
