As U.S. President Donald Trump's ongoing operation against Iran takes priority for Pentagon and White House planners, European officials fear he will lose interest in ending Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year, Politico reports, writes UNN.
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The practical impact, if the U.S. gets bogged down in a protracted conflict in the Middle East, as the publication writes, "could be even more serious than the political effect: Ukraine could lose American-made weapons needed to counter Russia's daily missile attacks, as American forces use so many weapons against Iran."
"There's a domino effect in terms of attention," said Ed Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank in London. "How do you get Trump to pursue a policy or renew efforts to deter Russia in Ukraine when he's just opened another front in a potential war? At the same time, if you're going to send a lot of equipment and materiel to the region, you won't have spare parts on the shelves."
Even before the U.S. launched its airstrikes on Iran, officials in Washington expressed concern that such a conflict could deplete American weapons stockpiles and make the U.S. more vulnerable, an argument that is likely to grow louder the longer the war lasts, the publication writes. "This could push the Trump administration to prioritize replenishing its own stockpiles instead of providing missiles for sale to Europe and Ukraine," warned a senior European government official.
"A lot of firepower has been expended, including interceptor missiles and other missiles," the official said. "The U.S. needs to replenish its stockpiles, which means there's less for Europe or Ukraine to buy."
In Kyiv, American PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems are considered vital for shooting down Russian missiles. European governments also do not have ready supplies of air defense assets and are prioritizing the development of their own capabilities to be more self-sufficient, as well as to make a greater contribution to Ukraine. But these efforts are likely to take years, the publication writes.
The U.S. government has stated that it has no capacity issues when asked about its commitments to Ukraine. "The United States Armed Forces are fully equipped to achieve any strategic objectives of the President," said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
Currently, the publication writes, Trump's attempts to accelerate negotiations, including through the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Russia's oil industry, have not yet led to a breakthrough. Trump himself has previously said that he might one day run out of patience and "step back" from trying to help achieve peace.
"It will be difficult to maintain the necessary momentum," said one European diplomat. "Before the war against Iran, the Americans were already showing less interest and losing patience with Ukraine."
The diplomat said Trump might lose focus on peace talks, but added, "Are they even leading anywhere?" the publication writes.
"The first tangible impact of the Iranian crisis on Ukraine has already been felt – on the country's aspiration to join the European Union. The EU was supposed to provide Ukrainian officials with detailed information on the next steps they would need to take on the path to membership in the bloc at a meeting in Cyprus this week. But after an Iranian drone struck a British airbase in Cyprus, the meeting was postponed," the publication states.
This delay, the publication writes, "is another disappointment for Kyiv, after the EU failed to reach an agreement on the use of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine's recovery at the end of last year, and also failed to complete the provision of a promised loan of 90 billion euros."
"The EU plans to reschedule the meeting and hand over the remaining accession documents to Ukraine for negotiations as soon as possible," said a European diplomat familiar with the plans.
"It's important not to lose momentum," the diplomat said. "We don't want to let the situation in the Middle East affect this."
Ukraine faces resistance to accelerated EU accession - Reuters03.03.26, 17:45 • [views_18465]
"Of course, Putin is far from getting everything he wants. American and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of commanders and other high-ranking regime officials, depriving Putin of another valuable ally after American forces captured Nicolas Maduro in January," the publication also writes.
Iran also bought Russian weapons, and at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it sold its Shahed drones to Moscow. More recently, Russia has been manufacturing many of its own, based on Iranian designs.
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Ukrainian parliament, told the publication on Monday that he was "not worried that Trump would be too distracted by the war in Iran."
"In principle, there are certain advantages for us," he said. In addition to depriving Russia of a weapons supplier, U.S. attacks on Iran could help show Trump that Ukraine is "on the same side" as the U.S. – two democratic countries fighting authoritarian regimes. "We are fighting against the entire axis of evil," he said. "It's not just Russia, it's Iran, North Korea, it's China, which is economically helping the Russian war machine."
Yehor Cherniev, deputy head of the national security and defense committee in the Ukrainian parliament, told the publication that the war in Iran would continue "in parallel" with U.S.-mediated peace talks, which have not been canceled.
"They are interconnected," he said. "The faster and more effectively the U.S. acts against Iran, the more chances there are to achieve progress in peace talks with Russia. The only risk for us will be if the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran drags on and fails to achieve any goals. Then, indeed, attention to Ukraine may weaken."