EU Commissioner criticizes Trump over exchange with Zelensky

London: European Union Commissioner Andreas Kubilius has criticized the Trump administration over a heated debate between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.

In an interview, Kubilius, the EU’s defense industry and space commissioner, said it was unacceptable to treat the leader of a country fighting for survival in such a manner.

“This way of welcoming the president of another country fighting for his survival was difficult to understand and completely unacceptable,” said Kubilius, a former prime minister of Lithuania.

He added that European leaders, including EU President Ursula von der Leyen, had assured Zelensky that Ukraine would not stand alone. “President Trump and his team’s strategy is still not clear to us,” he said.

Kubilius also mentioned that during the Munich conference, the EU received “strange messages” from the US, particularly when Vice President J.D. Vance criticized the European Union on several points.

Emphasizing European support for Ukraine, he stated, “The Ukrainian people truly deserve peace, and they yearn for it. But a just peace can only be achieved through a formula of peace through force. That formula was replicated by the Americans so far.”

He underscored the need to provide Ukraine with military and financial support to counter Russian aggression. “Putin started the war, he started the aggression. We need to give Ukrainians the power to show him that he won’t gain anything from it,” he said.