Marianna Fakhurdínova, Coordinator of the EU–Ukraine Partnership Program at the Transatlantic Dialogue Center (TDC) y becaria de CEPA, junto con Yehor Tkachuk, Analyst of the EU–Ukraine Partnership Program at TDC, joined the “MVZP+“ podcast of the Chair of International Relations and Foreign Policy at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv to discuss how the second Trump presidency is reshaping security relations between the United States, the European Union, and Ukraine. The discussion was based on TDC’s study “Navigating the US–EU–Ukraine Triangle: Revitalizing Transatlantic Security Cooperation“.
Oleksandr Kraiev, Director of the North America Program at the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” and Senior Lecturer at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, also joined the conversation.
The speakers discussed how Washington’s strategic reorientation under Donald Trump has accelerated the crisis of trust in transatlantic relations, pushing the United States to prioritize homeland security and competition with China while expecting European allies to assume greater responsibility for conventional deterrence. At the same time, they stressed that Europe’s rearmament efforts and strategic autonomy initiatives remained constrained by a critical “transition gap“: the continent is expected to take on more security responsibilities, yet remains dependent on U.S. capabilities, including intelligence, air defence systems such as Patriot, HIMARS, key munitions, and broader NATO command structures.
Rather than framing the current moment as a simple breakdown of transatlantic cooperation, Fakhurdinova, Tkachuk and Kraiev emphasized the need for a more pragmatic framework for U.S.–EU–Ukraine engagement. They argued that neither Ukraine nor the EU can afford to disengage from Washington, even as the “America First” doctrine makes traditional reliance on U.S. guarantees increasingly unsustainable.
The discussion also highlighted areas where coordination remains both possible and necessary, including:
- security guarantees for Ukraine;
- defense-industrial cooperation;
- European rearmament;
- Ukraine’s role in the future European security architecture;
- critical minerals;
- and the search for a sustainable model of cooperation amid the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
Listen to the podcast via the enlace.