The initiative that led Europe's support for Ukraine could break up. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resigned, and French President Emmanuel Macron cannot contest next year's election, raising fears of a leadership vacuum that could leave Europe's pro-Ukraine coalition rudderless, the Telegraph reported. Together, the two men had brought over 30 countries into the "Coalition of the Willing" backing Kyiv.
The alarm centers on Macron's exit next year, with the bookmakers' favorite to succeed him being far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who has promised to pull France out of NATO's command, lift Russia sanctions, and push Ukraine toward a peace deal on Moscow's terms.
Meanwhile, Britain says it will hold the line, while France becomes the deeper worry. Starmer's successor, Andy Burnham, though light on foreign-policy experience, made President Volodymyr Zelenskyy his first face-to-face meeting as prime minister, hosting him in Portsmouth this week and promising continuity on Ukraine and NATO.
France offers Ukraine no easy successor
Both French frontrunners alarm Kyiv's backers. Le Pen's chief rival, the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has gone further, pledging to withdraw France from the Western military alliance entirely, and a Western official warned of "a big problem" for NATO should either hardliner win.
A CDU MP says Merz is "no Churchill"
The obvious candidate to fill Macron's role is doubted within his own party. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is mired in domestic crises and a mutinous party, and Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP from Merz's own CDU, said the chancellor was "no Churchill." Germany has refused to commit troops to guarantee a ceasefire, withheld the long-range Taurus missiles, and declined to seize Russian shadow-fleet tankers.
"This is no leadership, and so who might lead Europe then? We need a Churchill... but we have no Churchill in Europe so far," he said.
The frame is the Telegraph's, and the outcomes are unsettled
Poland's Donald Tusk and Italy's Giorgia Meloni, the other members of Europe's Group of Five, have both refused to send troops and face their own elections, and neither is seen as a Macron successor. As a result, Burnham may be left to lead the coalition alone.
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