Why Exactly Does Europe Need the United States to Defend Ukraine?

Could Europe beat Russia in Ukraine? Let's dig into the numbers and find out.

by Rod D. Martin
March 11, 2025

Our European “allies” have been livid with the Trump Administration’s push for peace in Ukraine (not to mention its demand that they respect their own laws on freedom of speech). Rumors abound that they even coaxed President Volodymyr Zelensky to bite the hand that feeds him in his now-infamous Oval Office meeting (leading Democrats certainly did, potentially violating the Logan Act). They certainly speak as if they would “pick up the slack” if America walked away.

But would they? And that harsh, more pointed question: why haven’t they?

It’s a good question. To hear some EU leaders (and many Democrats) talk, they plainly want an outcome — pushing Russia completely out of even such Ukrainian territory as it held before the 2022 invasion — that would require deployment of Western combat troops, and probably an outright invasion of Russia. Donald Trump is never going to do that, nor should anyone else who doesn’t want to risk getting nuked (a seemingly reasona…