European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will tour frontline EU states to reassure them of Europe’s support against Russian aggression and push for higher defense spending, as the war in Ukraine drags on.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will embark Friday on a tour of so-called frontline states to reassure them of Europe’s support in the face of Russian aggression and to urge increased defense spending, a spokesperson for the EU executive said Thursday.
The tour will take von der Leyen to Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland—all countries that share borders with Russia or Belarus—as well as Bulgaria and Romania. This marks her most significant diplomatic initiative on EU security and defense since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The week-long tour, from Friday to Monday, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump intensifies efforts to broker an end to Russia’s three-year-old war against Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Despite recent diplomatic overtures, including a Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of halting the assault. Overnight, Russian forces bombarded Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles, killing at least 10 civilians and hitting an EU delegation building.
Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà said Thursday: “The attacks [on the EU delegation building] are completely unacceptable. In no way will they shake our support for Ukraine.” She added that no diplomatic staff were injured and that they will remain in Ukraine.
The ongoing conflict has spurred a rush to bolster Europe’s militaries, with NATO’s European members pledging to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. However, many EU states face high budget deficits and uncertainty remains over how they will meet these ambitious targets. The EU has relaxed spending rules to enable more borrowing for defense, but the available funds still fall short of the large increases sought by Trump.
Von der Leyen will start her tour on Friday in Latvia, meeting Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, then head to Helsinki for meetings with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and President Alexander Stubb. On Saturday, she will travel to Estonia to meet Prime Minister Kristen Michal, then on to Poland for a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Sunday. Later that day, von der Leyen will visit Bulgaria for talks with Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov, and on Monday, she will round out her trip in Romania and Lithuania, meeting President Nicușor Dan and President Gitanas Nausėda, respectively.
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