The Presidents of France and the United States are sharply divided on the Russian-Ukrainian War. The future of Ukraine and the European Union seems to hang in the balance.

“President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France put on a show of friendship on Monday in their first meeting since last month’s inauguration, but for all the clubby hugs and handshakes they could not disguise the growing rift between the United States and Europe over the Ukraine war,” according to The New York Times.

“Meeting on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two leaders seemed intent on avoiding an open rupture as they traded compliments during a convivial White House meeting. But they diverged significantly over the causes of the war, each side’s role in the conflict and its possible resolution.”

“But even as Mr. Macron called the president ‘dear Donald’ and repeatedly used words like ‘friendship’ and ‘shared agenda,’ he gently and politely struck a different note from Mr. Trump’s on the war,” The New York Times observed.

“‘This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,’ the French president said during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House. ‘It must not mean a cease-fire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty.'”

“Mr. Trump made no mention of guarantees or Ukrainian sovereignty, refused to call Mr. Putin a dictator and falsely stated that the United States had spent three times as much on the war as Europe had. Mr. Macron, careful not to provoke Mr. Trump, made clear that Russia was to blame for the war, not Ukraine, and corrected the president’s assertions about European aid,” according to The New York Times.

“Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office before their news conference, Mr. Trump, who last week said that Ukraine had ‘started’ the war and called the country’s popularly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a ‘dictator without elections,’ declined to use the term for Mr. Putin, who has ruled as an autocrat for a quarter-century. ‘I don’t use those words lightly,’ Mr. Trump said.”

“Mr. Macron, by contrast, gave voice to the consensus view in Europe and, until now, in the United States that Moscow is to blame for the war. ‘This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia,’ the French president said.”

Historians of France and the United States are observing the fraying relationship of one of the closest alliances in the international relations.

Baker, Peter. “Trump and Macron Display Old Friendship but Split on the Ukraine War.” The New York Times (24 February 2025).

“Macron Tries to Sway Trump as U.S. Backs Russia Over Ukraine in U.N. Vote.” The Washington Post (24 February 2025).