Маріанна Фахурдінова, Coordinator of the EU-Ukraine Partnership Program at the Transatlantic Dialogue Center (TDC) and CEPA Fellow, together with Єгор Ткачук, Analyst of the EU-Ukraine Partnership Program at TDC, published an article for European Pravda on why the EU and Ukraine need a more pragmatic, interest-driven approach to engaging the United States as transatlantic relations enter a deeper crisis of trust. The article is based on TDC’s study “Navigating the US–EU–Ukraine Triangle: Revitalizing Transatlantic Security Cooperation”.
The authors argue that Washington’s foreign policy under Donald Trump has accelerated a shift away from values-based partnership toward a more transactional logic, undermining predictability and confidence in U.S. commitments. At the same time, they stress that neither Ukraine nor the EU can afford to disengage from cooperation with the United States on core security issues, given ongoing dependencies in areas such as intelligence, air defence, and critical military capabilities.
Rather than restoring the previous model of transatlantic relations, Fakhurdinova and Tkachuk emphasize the need to build a new framework for cooperation based on overlapping interests, mutual benefit, and greater European responsibility. They outline areas where the U.S., the EU, and Ukraine can still coordinate despite political tensions, including security guarantees, defence-industrial cooperation, countering Russia’s “shadow fleet”, the future use of frozen Russian assets, coordination on critical minerals, and strengthening EU-NATO cooperation.
Read the full piece via the link.