https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/22/zelensky-attack-weak-indecisive-european-leaders/
Countries in Europe are too busy arguing among themselves to be a ‘truly global power’, Ukrainian president tells Davos
Memphis Barker |Senior Foreign Correspondent
Volodymyr Zelensky said Europe was weak and fragmented in a speech at Davos, attacking its leaders for being too indecisive to stand up to Russia, China or Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president said European powers were too busy arguing among themselves to join together and become a “truly global power”.
In a remarkably aggressive address to the World Economic Forumon Thursday, he said the countries funding the Ukrainian war effort “love to discuss the future but avoid taking action today”.
He singled out the decision to send “40 soldiers” to Greenland as insufficient to protect the island.
The continent, he said, would remain a “fragmented kaleidoscope” of small and middle powers as it avoided the kind of forceful action that could intimidate its enemies.
“Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide, especially when America’s focus shifts elsewhere, Europe looks lost trying to convince the US president to change,” Mr Zelensky said.
He also revealed that before he visited Washington to discuss the war with Donald Trump, European leaders told him not to ask for US-made Tomahawk missiles so as not to “spoil the mood”.
Mr Zelensky met Mr Trump on the sidelines at Davos shortly before the Ukrainian leader delivered his broadside against European political inertia.
He said that the talks were “important” and that the documents needed to end the war were “very nearly” ready.
Ukrainian, US and Russian officials will meet in the United Arab Emirates on Friday for a two-day summit intended to restart the peace process, he announced.
Meanwhile, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were due to arrive in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin on Thursday night.
Throughout his speech, Mr Zelensky contrasted the forcefulness of the US president with the flakiness of European leaders.
They had not spent enough on defence until Mr Trump intervened, he said. “Why can President Trump stop tankers from the shadow fleet and seize oil, when Europe doesn’t?” he added.
Moments after Mr Zelensky’s speech, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, announced that France had seized a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker in the Mediterranean, working on British intelligence.
Europe had failed to stop the sale of missile components to Russia and blocked the use of Moscow’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine’s war effort, Mr Zelensky said.
“Thank you Keir, thank you Emmanuel,” he said, in recognition of pledges to deploy troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. But he added that Mr Trump’s “backstop” was needed to truly secure peace.
European leaders have previously counselled Mr Zelensky to flatter Mr Trump and may recognise the strategy in his speech. But the criticism is likely to rankle nonetheless, given that European nations are now providing almost all the funds and weapons going to Ukraine.
While Mr Trump has ended US aid, the European Parliament approved a €90bn (£78bn) support loan earlier this week.
Turning to Greenland, the Ukrainian president mocked European nations for sending too few troops to the island for any meaningful defence.
“Forty soldiers will not protect anything,” he said. “What message does that send to Putin, to China – and even more importantly, what message does that send to Denmark, your close ally?”
Ukraine has the technology and expertise to sink any Russian warships that approach Greenland, Mr Zelensky suggested.
“We know how to fight there if we were asked and if Ukraine were in Nato,” he said, adding: “But we are not.”
The Ukrainian president began his speech with a reference to Groundhog Day, saying he was repeating his message from last year.
“Europe needs to know how to defend itself. A year has passed and nothing has changed.”
The continent ought to form its own joint armed forces, he said, as trust in Nato was fraying.
That alliance exists “on the belief that the US will help” in the event of a crisis. “But what if it does not?”
In one of his most pointed comments to date, he called out Hungary’s Victor Orban, seen by many as Putin’s closest ally in the EU.
“Every ‘Viktor’ who lives off European money while trying to sell out European interests deserves a slap in the face,” he said.
Mr Orban replied on X: “It seems to me that we will not be able to come to an understanding. I am a free man who serves the Hungarian people. You are a man in a desperate position who, for the fourth year now, has been unable or unwilling to bring a war to an end—despite the fact that the president of the United States has provided every possible assistance to do so.
“Therefore, no matter how much you flatter me, we cannot support your war efforts. The Ukrainian people, of course – despite your carefully chosen insults – can still count on us to continue supplying your country with electricity and fuel, and we will also continue to support refugees arriving from Ukraine.
“Life itself will settle the rest, and everyone will get what they deserve.”