Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday delivered one of his sharpest rebukes yet of Europe’s response to Ukraine war with Russia, accusing the continent of moving too slowly and lacking unity nearly four years into the war.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he warned that Europe’s hesitation has left Ukraine exposed to continued aggression from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Addressing political and business leaders, Zelenskyy said Europe had failed to act with the urgency and resolve required to confront Moscow, describing the continent as adrift at a critical moment. “Europe looks lost,” he said, urging European countries to assert themselves as a coherent global force. He contrasted what he described as Europe’s fragmented approach with Washington’s more decisive recent actions in Venezuela and Iran.
Zelenskyy framed Ukraine’s experience of the war through a cultural reference, invoking the film Groundhog Day, in which the protagonist is forced to relive the same day repeatedly. The analogy, he suggested, mirrored Kyiv’s frustration with what he sees as recurring delays and unfulfilled promises from its European partners.
The speech came shortly after Zelenskyy held talks with US President Donald Trump in Davos. He said the meeting resulted in agreement on what post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine would entail. While he did not disclose details, Zelenskyy said the guarantees were finalised, ready to be signed by leaders, and would require approval from both the Ukrainian parliament and the US Congress.
However, in a noticeable shift from his typically conciliatory tone towards the European Union — Ukraine’s principal political and financial backer — Zelenskyy used the Davos stage to vent his impatience with what he characterised as European inaction. Returning to the Groundhog Day analogy, he said progress on key initiatives essential to Ukraine’s long-term security remained stalled.
“What’s missing: time or political will?” Zelenskyy asked, pointing to delays in establishing a European tribunal to prosecute war crimes linked to Russia’s invasion. He noted that the issue had been raised repeatedly without tangible results.
Recalling his appearance at Davos a year earlier, Zelenskyy said Europe’s strategic outlook had barely shifted. “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” he said. “A year has passed. And nothing has changed. We are still in a situation where I must say the same words again.”
For Ukrainians, he added, the sense of repetition has become a grim reality of daily life. “We keep repeating the same thing for weeks, months and, of course, for years,” he said. “And yet that is exactly how we live now. It’s our life.”
European nations, which view the war in Ukraine as a test of their own future security on the continent’s eastern flank, have provided substantial financial, military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv. But support has not been uniform across the 27-member European Union, and Ukraine has grown increasingly frustrated with internal divisions over how to confront Russia.
Disagreements among European governments and the bloc’s often slow decision-making have, in Kyiv’s view, weakened the collective response to Moscow. Zelenskyy’s Davos remarks underscored a growing impatience in Ukraine as the war drags on, and as appeals for faster, firmer action from Europe continue to meet resistance and delay.
Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.
Ukraine is short of money and, despite significantly boosting its own arms manufacturing, still needs Western weaponry. It is also short-handed on the front line. Its defense minister last week reported some 200,000 troop desertions and draft-dodging by about 2 million Ukrainians.
Zelenskyy is also striving to keep the world’s attention focused on Ukraine despite other conflicts.
He chided Europe for being slow to act on key decisions, spending too little on defense, failing to stop Russia’s ”shadow fleet” of oil tankers that are breaking international sanctions, and balking at using its frozen assets in Europe to finance Ukraine, among other things.
Europe, he said, “still feels more like a geography, history, a tradition, not a real political force, not a great power.”
“Some Europeans are really strong, it’s true, but many say we must stand strong, and they always want someone else to tell them how long they need to stand strong, preferably until the next election,” he said.
The Trump administration is pushing for a peace settlement, with its envoys shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow in a flurry of negotiations that some worry could force Ukraine into a unfavorable deal.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected in Moscow later Thursday for more talks with Putin.
One major issue remains to be resolved in negotiations, Witkoff said at Davos, without saying what it was. Zelenskyy said the future status of land in eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Russia is unresolved but that peace proposals are “nearly ready.”
Postwar security guarantees, should a deal be reached, are agreed between the U.S. and Ukraine, although they would require each country’s ratification, he said.
Zelenskyy said there would be two days of trilateral meetings involving the U.S., Ukraine and Russia due to begin in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.
“Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” he said
Trump and Zelenskyy have had a fraught relationship, and the American president has at times also rebuked Putin.
Zelenskyy said he thanked Trump for providing U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems that can help stop Russian missiles that are repeatedly hitting Ukraine’s power grid, causing hardship for civilians denied light, heating and running water. He said he asked Trump for more of them.
After Trump cut support for Ukraine, other NATO countries began buying weapons from the U.S. to donate to Kyiv under a special financial arrangement.
With inputs from agencies
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