As a frontline NATO heavyweight, Poland is seething at being relegated to the diplomatic sidelines on a potential peace deal in Ukraine. When leaders from the U.K., France, Germany and Ukraine gathered in London this week to align their stances on Washington’s fast-moving push for a peace deal, Poland wasn’t to be found on the guest list. It was the second snub in as many months, after Warsaw also missed an invitation to a crunch peace summit in Geneva on Nov. 23. Poland’s exclusion from the top table is a bitter blow for a country that has taken one of the EU’s most active positions on Ukraine — and the right-wing nationalist camp around President Karol Nawrocki has wasted no time in blaming liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the flop. “Poland’s absence in London is yet another example of Donald Tusk’s incompetence,” Marek Pęk, a senator from the nationalist Law and Justice party, raged after the Downing Street meeting, calling Tusk “a second-tier politician in Europe.” The reasons for Polish frustration are clear. Poland not only hosts 1 million Ukrainian refugees and acts as the key supply hub for Ukraine, but Warsaw also plays a pivotal role in pressing Europe toward rearmament. Poland is NATO’s highest per capita spender on defense and wants to more than double its military — already the alliance’s third biggest — to 500,000 personnel. TUSK ON THE MARGINS Tusk has also betrayed some frustration at Poland’s exile to the diplomatic margins. After the meeting in Geneva, he asked to be added to the joint European communiqué — a face-saving request that Warsaw commentators said merely underlined Poland’s absence. Donald Tusk has betrayed some frustration at Poland’s exile to the diplomatic margins. | Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images In Berlin last week, standing beside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Tusk tried to defuse the awkwardness over the diplomatic rebuff to Poland with a touch of irony. “I don’t want to stir emotions, but let’s say this plainly: Not everyone in Washington — and certainly no one in Moscow — wants Poland to be present everywhere,” he said, before adding that he took this banishment — presumably a reflection of Poland’s dogged defense of Ukraine — “as a compliment.” The government insists nothing unusual occurred in London. The format “was proposed by Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer,” government spokesperson Adam Szłapka said, arguing that “there are dozens of such formats, and they change constantly. Not every format produces results, and Poland does not have to — and should not — participate in all of them.”  He noted that Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski had joined a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Starmer after the meeting — proof, he said, that Poland “remains fully engaged.” Polish officials are also quick to point out there are no actual peace negotiations with Russia, at least for now. “These are snapshots, not the architecture,” one diplomat said of Warsaw’s absences. “It’s too early for hysteria.” The diplomat, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely on a topic of political sensitivity. FROM PLAYMAKER TO BYSTANDER In the early years of the war, Poland was impossible to ignore. It sent much of its arsenal to Ukraine, cajoled Berlin into sending Leopard tanks to Kyiv, and served as NATO’s indispensable logistics hub, most notably from an airbase near the city of Rzeszów. President Karol Nawrocki has been busy building up his own foreign-policy credentials. | Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images But much of that leverage has faded. Poland’s Soviet-era weapons stocks are depleted and its vast rearmament drive won’t free up anything it can spare abroad for years. Meanwhile, France, Germany and the U.K. are now promising new air-defense systems, long-range missiles and — crucially — are willing to contribute troops to any future monitoring or peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. Even if they are just that — promises — Poland has already ruled that out. In discussions now centered on cease-fire enforcement and security guarantees, past support matters less than deployable assets, and Kyiv has adjusted accordingly. Zelenskyy is now leaning heavily on capitals that can bring something new to the table. “Americans don’t want us, European leaders don’t want us, Kyiv doesn’t want us — so who does?” former Prime Minister Leszek Miller said after the London talks. “Something unpleasant is happening, and we should stop pretending otherwise.” Former President Bronisław Komorowski, a political ally of Tusk, argued that Poland’s absence reflected geopolitical realities, not diplomatic failure.  London brought together “the three strongest European countries” — politically, militarily and economically — the ones contributing the most to Ukraine’s war effort, he said. Poland, he added, “is simply weaker,” and while Europe values Warsaw’s role, it must be “in line with its real weight.” SPLIT-SCREEN DIPLOMACY Poland’s quest for diplomatic heft is hardly helped by its difficulties speaking with one voice abroad. As Tusk focuses on European coordination efforts, nationalist opposition-backed President Nawrocki has been busy building up his own foreign-policy credentials, jetting off to Washington, cultivating contacts around Donald Trump’s administration, and speaking publicly about Poland’s “independent voice.”  The two sides exchange frequent jabs. Tusk recently reminded Nawrocki that the Polish constitution entrusts foreign policy to the government, not to the presidency. Despite the theatrics, both camps share the same hard line on Russia. What they don’t share is a strategy for navigating Washington. Government officials acknowledge Nawrocki currently has more direct access to the White House.  His senior foreign policy adviser, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, puts it bluntly: “Trump will never meet Tusk. He will meet the president. Thanks to him, Poland still has a channel to Washington.” Nawrocki’s circle argues this gives him leverage Tusk can’t match. Without access to Trump, Tusk “adds nothing distinctive” to high-level Western conversations, Saryusz-Wolski told POLITICO. In his view, unless someone with the president’s standing asserts Poland’s interests at the highest level, the country will simply follow whatever compromise Paris, Berlin and London shape with Washington. Officials concede privately that a channel to Washington matters — and for now, Nawrocki has it. Still, they also warn that betting everything on a single, unpredictable U.S. president is risky, especially after the new U.S. security strategy openly signaled that Europe must take far greater responsibility for its own defense. The consequence of Nawrocki handling diplomacy with Trump while Tusk deals with Europe is that it can look like two foreign policies at once. “The problem is not Poland’s position,” said a senior Western European diplomat, referring to the country’s pro-Ukraine stance. “The problem is knowing who speaks for Poland.” If it’s any consolation to Tusk, Germany’s Merz insists that he is taking Warsaw’s position into account. “My position toward Poland is very clear: We do nothing without close coordination with Poland,” the chancellor told Tusk last week.

PARIS — The French navy opened fire at drones that were detected over a highly-sensitive military site harboring French nuclear submarines, according to newswire Agence France-Presse. Five drones were detected Thursday night over the submarine base of Île Longue, in Brittany, western France, a strategic military site home to ballistic missile submarines, the AFP reported, citing the the French gendarmerie, which is part of the military. The submarines harbored at the base carry nuclear weapons and are a key part of France’s nuclear deterrent. French navy troops in charge of protecting the base opened fire, the report said. It was unclear whether the drones were shot down. Drones had already been spotted in the area last month, albeit not directly above the base, per reports in French media. The site had been buzzed by drones long before the invasion of Ukraine. The incident follows a string of recent drone incursions in NATO airspace, with unmanned aircrafts seen buzzing around sensitive military sites and civil infrastructures in recent months across Europe, including in Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Norway. In Poland, fighter jets were scrambled in September to shoot down drones of Russian origin, an incident widely seen as an escalation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war on Europe. French authorities haven’t yet commented on the suspected origin of the drone incident Thursday at the well-known military site.

BERLIN — Germany’s Bundestag budget committee is planning to sign off on over €2.6 billion in new military programs, according to a confidential list seen by POLITICO. The approvals, set for next week, mark another broad procurement round as Berlin ramps up defense spending and reenergizes its arms industry. The 11-item package includes almost every capability area: drones, long-range missiles, soldier systems, logistics vehicles and critical radar upgrades.  For Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government, it’s another step toward making the Bundeswehr a war-ready force while giving German manufacturers a steadier pipeline of long-term orders. Some of the biggest checks are being written for drones. MPs will clear about €68 million for Uranos KI, an AI-enabled reconnaissance network built in competing versions by Airbus Defence and Space and German defense-AI company Helsing. Another €86 million will keep the German Heron TP, operated by Airbus DS Airborne Solutions and based on Israel’s Heron TP, flying into the 2030s. Roughly €16 million will go to Aladin, a short-range reconnaissance drone developed by Munich-based start-up Quantum Systems. Air power also gets a significant boost. MPs are set to approve around €445 million for a new batch of Joint Strike Missiles, produced by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and integrated for Germany’s incoming Lockheed Martin F-35A fleet. Separate contracts worth €37 million will replace obsolete radar components on Eurofighter jets.  NH90 naval helicopters, built by NHIndustries — a consortium of Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo and Fokker — will receive a parallel radar upgrade, as the model returned to headlines after Norway settled a long-running availability dispute with the manufacturer. At the soldier level, the Bundeswehr will move forward with close to €760 million for new G95 assault rifles from Heckler & Koch, nearly €490 million for laser-light modules supplied by Rheinmetall Soldier Electronics, and about €140 million for headset-based communications systems produced by Rheinmetall Electronics with major subcontractors 3M and CeoTronics. And in a sign of Berlin’s effort to rebuild military logistics at scale, MPs will approve roughly €380 million for off-road military trucks from Mercedes-Benz and around €175 million for heavy tank-transport trailers built by DOLL. These contracts directly feed Germany’s defense-industrial base as Berlin pushes industry to deliver at wartime speed.

U.S. President Donald Trump shocked European capitals last week with an extraordinary ultimatum to Kyiv: Accept Washington’s surprise draft plan to end the war in Ukraine or risk losing American weapons and intelligence. That plan has since been amended with Ukrainian and European input to be less overtly pro-Russian, but the threat still hangs over Kyiv. That raises two questions: whether Europe has the capacity to smoothly step in and replace the weapons provided by the U.S., and whether Ukraine can continue fighting without U.S. arms. Short answers: No and yes. Long answer: POLITICO took a look at five key issues raised by Trump’s ultimatum and what they mean for Ukraine’s war effort. 1. CAN EUROPE SIMPLY REPLACE THE UNITED STATES? No, not in the near term and not at the level Ukraine needs. Christian Mölling, senior adviser at the European Policy Centre, said Europe can support Ukraine without the U.S., but only “with more risk.” Anything Washington stops providing would have to be “compensated through losses or by changing how Ukraine fights.” And even then, matching the current level of support is “hardly possible.” Europe supplies Ukraine with ammunition, tanks, fighter jets and much more — but U.S. weapons are still vital. The most critical gap is air and missile defense. Much of Ukraine’s ability to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles rests on U.S.-made Patriot systems and their PAC-3 missiles, which only the United States produces. “I would love to say we could do without the United States … but only for some time,” said Mykola Bielieskov, research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies. “Only the United States can produce PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles.” The U.S. State Department this month approved a $105 million sale of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine. Donald Trump briefly halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine in March in an earlier effort to force Kyiv to the negotiating table. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Europe does supply Ukraine with the French-Italian SAMP/T air defense system, which has similar capabilities to the Patriot, and will get the upgraded SAMP/NG system next year, but with the Kremlin unleashing devastating attacks against Ukrainian cities almost every day, Ukraine needs every system it can get. 2. HOW IMPORTANT IS INTELLIGENCE SHARING? Mölling noted that Ukraine’s early detection of incoming missiles relies on dense U.S. satellite and sensor networks that Europe simply doesn’t have. European assets could help “with gaps,” but “it will never be as good.” Trump briefly halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine in March in an earlier effort to force Kyiv to the negotiating table. Ukraine does have access to spy satellites thanks to Finnish space company ICEYE, and Europe does have its own intelligence capabilities — just not of the same caliber as the U.S. Without U.S. aid, both detecting incoming Russian attacks and preparing counter-attacks, like hitting Russian air defense batteries and refineries, would be more difficult. “Without U.S. help, our ability to deliver long-range strikes on Russia will be critically reduced. It will be very hard for us. But I can proudly say that we have all come a long way, and we will not lose this ability,” a Ukrainian soldier with the country’s Unmanned Systems Forces, identified only by his callsign Linch, said at a conference in Kyiv on Friday. If the U.S. stopped sharing intelligence, that “would actually lead to more deaths of Ukrainians,” said Maksym Skrypchenko, president of the Kyiv-based Transatlantic Dialogue Center. Europe could, over time, build more satellites and reconnaissance aircraft. But it would take years just to fulfill the capability targets of European nations let alone help Ukraine.  3. ISN’T EUROPE ALREADY OUTSPENDING THE U.S.? Europe is now clearly outspending the United States on Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean it’s in the driver’s seat.  Kiel Institute data shows that from 2022 to 2024, Washington and Europe each averaged roughly the same level of monthly military commitments to Kyiv. When Trump took office, that changed dramatically: U.S. monthly military aid dropped close to zero, while European governments ramped up to nearly €4 billion per month in the first half of the year and, even after a dip, were still providing several times more than the U.S. through the summer. Rather than give weapons, the U.S. instead is selling them — and getting allies to foot the bill under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List.  PURL is a shopping list agreed with NATO that sees European governments wiring money straight to U.S. defense companies for weapons Ukraine can’t get elsewhere. It’s a way of ensuring that crucial American weapons keep flowing to Ukraine — and a political means to keep a transactional Trump from abandoning Kyiv. Washington and Europe each averaged roughly the same level of monthly military commitments to Kyiv. | Celal Güne/Getty Images “Americans are selling Ukraine what is impossible to substitute,” Skrypchenko said, arguing that U.S. industry needs the European market and will want to keep selling Patriots and other unique systems. But that doesn’t give Europe real control. Mölling said the deeper problem is that Washington no longer treats defense arrangements as reliable contracts. The United States, he argued, “increasingly behaves like a partner that feels free to rewrite terms whenever its political mood shifts,” leaving Europeans exposed.  4. WILL THE U.S. REALLY STOP SELLING WEAPONS TO UKRAINE? Skrypchenko argued that the commercial logic pushes against a total halt; PURL has $3.5 billion in pledges, and that’s a lot of money for U.S. defense companies to give up. “I don’t think the U.S. will stop selling us weapons at a European cost,” he said. However, Mölling warned that political authority beats commercial incentives.  “The U.S. government can stop exports with a single decision,” he said, referring to phases where the Trump administration has stopped deliveries or intelligence sharing in the past. Washington can also, if it wants, block or freeze reexports or slow deliveries overnight to pressure Kyiv or Europe. That’s already the mood in Washington. “President Trump stopped the funding of this war, but the United States is still sending or selling a big amount of weapons to NATO. We cannot do that forever,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday. 5. COULD UKRAINE CONTINUE TO FIGHT WITHOUT THE UNITED STATES? Ukraine could keep fighting, but the war would immediately enter a far more vulnerable and unpredictable phase. Russia has been losing thousands of men a week in its slow-moving offensive, and the Ukrainian military has managed to exact a bloody toll thanks to its drone tech and the increased amount of artillery shells it now has. Ukraine currently has one of Europe’s largest defense industries, producing its own drones, medium- and long-range missiles, artillery systems and ammunition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that the country is now producing about 60 percent of what it needs on the battlefront.  “In three years, we have transformed a small sector into a dynamic industry that has become the foundation of our defense capability,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Gvozdiar said on Monday. Not all of that missing 40 percent comes from the U.S., but enough does that doing without would affect Ukraine’s ability to wage war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that the country is now producing about 60 percent of what it needs on the battlefront. | Francesco Militello Mirto/Getty Images While it does produce cheap counter-drones, Ukraine still has no domestic ability to intercept ballistic missiles. And to keep the pace, Kyiv needs partners to keep financing its domestic defense sector. “Support from partners is critical for the industry to maintain momentum and expand capacity,” Gvozdiar said. Mölling also warned that losing U.S. support would force Kyiv to improvise, which would cost lives. Ukraine could continue operating, he said, but only by accepting “more risk” and adjusting tactics in ways that carry a higher cost. Ukraine’s resilience, however, is not in doubt. Skrypchenko pointed to how Ukraine has stayed in the fight even during severe shortages of air-defense interceptors, ammunition and other weapons and despite sustained Russian missile, bomb and drone barrages. The country “has not capitulated or fallen,” he said, a sign that Ukrainian forces would keep resisting even if Trump walks away. Veronika Melkozerova reported from Kyiv.

KYIV – Six people were killed and 13 wounded in Kyiv alone as Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine with missiles and drones overnight, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service reported on Tuesday morning. Ukraine’s drones simultaneously attacked Russia’s Rostov and Krasnodar regions, wounding 16 people and killing two, local governors said in Telegram posts. The reciprocal strikes come against the backdrop of another round of peace talks initiated by the United States. Washington initially wanted Kyiv to agree to a 28-point peace plan backed by and favoring Russia. After the Kremlin rejected the EU’s counterproposal, Ukraine and the U.S. worked up a slimmed-down version of the original plan. American officials are meeting their Russian counterparts in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, announced on X that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the U.S. “at the earliest possible date in November to finalize the final stages and reach an agreement with President Trump.” In Ukraine, Russia targeted civilian and energy infrastructure in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions, Zelenskyy said in a morning statement. “In total, the Russians used 22 different missiles of various types and over 460 drones,” Zelenskyy said. Moldova and Romania also reported drone incursions into their airspace during the attacks. “Weapons and air defense systems are important, as is the sanctions pressure on the aggressor. There can be no pauses in assistance,” Zelenskyy added. “What matters most now is that all partners move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must deliver results.” Ukrainian Army General Staff said they had targeted an aircraft repair plant and a drone production company in the Rostov region, and an oil terminal in Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region. The Krasnodar region reported one of the longest and most massive attacks by Ukraine. “Six residents of the region were injured, at least 20 houses in five municipalities were damaged,” Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratiev said. In the nearby region of Rostov, the Ukrainian drone attack killed at least two people and wounded 10, and damaged several warehouses and 12 residential buildings, local Governor Yuri Sliusar said.

Liz Truss looks out of place. In her neat pink jacket and white blouse, the former U.K. prime minister, who served a brief but eventful 49 days in the role back in 2022, strikes a contrast to the hoopla around her in the packed ballroom. Truss has come to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia this October evening for the yearly “CEO summit,” drawing corporate figures, conservative influencers and donors for a night of fiery speeches about the triumphs of the MAGA movement — seasoned with the university’s Christian conservative tradition of mixing politics with prayer. Truss rises somberly as the crowd is enjoined to repent, soul-search and double down on tithe payments to the Baptist mega-church originally founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell. From the stage at the front of the room, she nods along to the heady mixture of God and politics, waiting to start a talk about the so-called “deep state” — which, she claims, includes the Bank of England and the U.K. Treasury. She announces that she is “on a mission” to transform the U.K., and when someone cries a noisy “amen,” that throws her for a moment before she resumes. If the juxtaposition between the ex-prime minister and fire-and-brimstone MAGA evangelicals seems unlikely — Truss later tells me she is still a stalwart of the Church of England, which is much more establishment than evangelical, even if she thinks it has gone a bit “woke” on social issues like trans rights — her presence here nonetheless represents an increasingly popular trend. A transatlantic “Magafication” movement is luring traditional conservatives from the U.K. to identify with the provocative style of U.S. President Donald Trump — and to try their hands at imitating him on his home turf, participating in rousing conservative speaking events across the U.S. For some, like Truss, these events are a lucrative, mood-enhancing chance to establish a new identity after the stinging defeat of the Tory party at the last general election in July 2024. For her more charismatic predecessor Boris Johnson, they are a chance to hear the roar of the crowd that more sedate speaking gigs with hedge funds and law firms can’t deliver. For Nigel Farage, from the ultraconservative Reform UK party, they are a chance to re-forge British politics in the image of Trump — a benediction and a bro-mance all in one. Whether it’s connecting with voters on either side of the Atlantic, however, is a less certain proposition. Most of the students going about their early evening outside the hall don’t seem to know who Truss is. “They kind of told us she was the leader in the U.K.,” muses one business studies major, “but I never heard of her.” Just a few weeks earlier, it was Johnson — the premier who rose on the wings of Brexit and preceded Truss in a carousel of Tory leaders after the Leave vote — who spoke on campus at the new-term convocation, following a sequence of Christian rock numbers.  “We’re in a congregation, folks, convocation — I mean, we’ve been convoked,” Johnson riffed. The ruffle-haired charm and Old Etonian levity were a preamble to a speech about the Christian university as a “bastion of freedom” and a paean to the memory of Charlie Kirk, the murdered conservative activist, whom Johnson hailed as “a martyr to our inalienable right as human beings to say what is in our hearts.” Later, he zoned in on the need to keep supporting Ukraine and lambasted the authoritarianism of Russian President Vladimir Putin — to a muted response from the audience. It’s not exactly a popular take here; there are no follow-up questions on the topic. And at the CEO event, none of the speakers mention Ukraine or the U.S. role in its future at all. Much like the isolationism Johnson encountered, the British MAGA trail is a sign of the times. Trump’s twofold electoral success is attractive to some U.K. conservatives who feel there must be something in the president’s iconoclasm they can bottle and take home. And unlike tight-lipped debate forums in the U.K., such events give them a chance to be noisy and outspoken, to paint arguments in bold and provocative colors. In other words, to be Brits on tour — but also more like Trump. And, for added appeal, these tours are a lucrative field for former inhabitants of 10 Downing Street. One person who has previously worked at the Washington Speakers Bureau, one of the main hubs for booking A-list speakers, said that the fee for a former premier is around $200,000 for a substantial speech, plus private plane travel and commercial flights for a support team. That is a level of luxury unparalleled at home. Well known figures like Johnson and David (Lord) Cameron, the British premier from 2010 to 2016, can aim even higher if travel is complicated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Having “former prime minister” in front of your name in writing may open a lot of doors, but these politicians nonetheless have to tailor their resumes to appeal to American audiences.” Political CVs are duly bowdlerized to appeal to the target market of U.S. institutions and interests. Johnson’s profile at the Harry Walker agency in Washington, for instance, stresses his interest in deregulation and claims that he “successfully delivered Brexit — taking back control of U.K. law, marking the biggest constitutional change for half a century and enabling the United Kingdom to generate the fastest vaccine approval in the world.” This sequence of events and superlatives is debatable at best. Failures are routinely airbrushed out — Johnson’s premiership crashed in a mess of mismanagement during the pandemic and party divisions unleashed by the Brexit vote and his controversial handling of the aftermath, including the temporary dissolution of parliament to push through his legislation. But for characters whose legacy at home is either polarizing (like Johnson) or more likely to elicit a sly British eye roll outside a small fan base (Truss), there is also a degree of absolution on the American performance circuit that feels refreshing, in the same way that U.K. Indie bands stubbornly try to conquer America. Neither of the former Conservative leaders however, have as much to gain or lose by speaking at Trump-adjacent events as Farage, the leader of Britain’s Reform party — an “anti-woke,” Euro-skeptic, immigration-hostile party that is leading in the polls and attempting to expand its handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons into a party in contention for the next government. Farage has the closest access to Trump — a status previously enjoyed by Johnson, who last met Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2024 to discuss Ukraine. Proximity to Trump is the ultimate blessing, but it’s far harder to secure out of office than in it. Johnson endorsed Trump’s comeback at CPAC in February 2024 and wrote a column in support of Trump’s attack on the BBC for splicing footage of the January 6 uprising, which was deemed to be misleading and led to the abrupt departure of the broadcaster’s director general. Johnson was at Trump’s inauguration along with Truss (no other former U.K. politician was asked), but the invitations appear to have dropped off since chummy relations in Trump world can be ephemeral. Farage, by contrast, is a frequent visitor at both Mar-a-Lago and the White House. On November 7, he joined Trump at a fundraising auction for military veterans and has arranged to donate the prize of a walk with a centenarian veteran on Omaha beach, commemorating the D-Day landing site for U.S. forces. “I see him often,” he told me of his visits to Trump. Farage’s relationship with Trump could prove advantageous to him if he and his party claim greater power at home. He’d have the ear of the president, perhaps even the ability to sway Trump into a more sympathetic stance toward the U.K., even as the Americans embrace a more isolationist foreign policy. For now, Farage is certainly the most in-demand Brit on the MAGA circuit. He was the main speaker at the $500-a-head Republican party dinner in Tallahassee, Florida in March. Guests paid around $25,000 for a VIP ticket, which included having a photograph taken with the Reform UK leader. For the leader of a party that has a skimpy presence in parliament and faces the challenge of keeping its surge momentum and newsworthiness intact on a long road to the next election, being in the Trump limelight is a vote of confidence and a sign that he is taken seriously across the pond. The quid pro quo is performative loyalty — Farage, by turns genial and threatening in his manner, has echoed the president’s rancorous tone toward public broadcasters and media critics of MAGA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of this transatlantic networking has threatened to ensnare the British visiting troupe in ethical quagmires about how their lucrative American freelancing relates to duties and strictures at home. Farage has attracted envious attention among his peers in parliament for earning around $1.5 million a year in addition to his MP salary, but he was forced to apologize recently for failing to declare the March dinner appearance and any fees associated with it in the official registry. So far, he’s revealed only that the trip was “remunerated in three separate installments over the course of two months,” without naming the funder.  Even Farage’s friendship with Trump — the envy of his compatriots on the MAGA trail — could present vulnerabilities among the U.K. electorate. Farage’s base of Reform voters largely supports Trumpian stances on immigration and diversity, and they love Trump’s personality. But beyond core Reform voters, the president does not enjoy broad support in the U.K. Recent polling shows only 16 percent of British people like the president. That’s a challenge for the Reform UK leader, whose party polls at just under 30 percent support in the U.K.; he needs to reach Trump-skeptical voters beyond his base in order to claim power. On top of those liabilities, avid Christian nationalism of the kind Truss encountered at the Liberty event presents a cultural problem for British politicians. Mixing ideology with religious fervor is awkward back home where church-going is largely regarded as a private matter, even if there are signs of more evangelical commitment among influential Christian Conservatives like Paul Marshall, a hedge-funder who recently acquired The Spectator, the house publication of well-heeled Tories, expanding its digital reach into America. Hardline evangelical stances could undermine support for campaigners like Farage, says Tim Bale, an expert on elections and political trends at Queen Mary College, University of London. Farage “probably needs to be careful of getting into things like anti-abortion arguments or even term limits on abortion. That does not play in the U.K.,” he told me. Duly, on their U.S. pilgrimages, both Truss and Johnson side-step direct engagement with the religiosity of their hosts. Johnson, who once joked that his own Anglican faith “comes and goes like Classic FM in the Chiltern hills,” basks in his reputation as a cheerful libertine with an array of past wives and mistresses. He fathered one child by an affair, and a scandal arising from allegations that he paid for an abortion during another affair got him sacked from his party’s front bench in 2004. (Johnson married his current wife, with whom he has four children, in 2021.) Religion isn’t the only subject that makes British MAGA-philes modulate their tone toward Trump. Johnson spoke of Trump’s “boisterous and irreverent” treatment of journalists, but dismissed it as minor compared to the attacks on the fourth estate in Moscow. Despite her previous support for Ukraine as Johnson’s foreign secretary, Truss awkwardly ducked questions on the Westminster Insider interview podcast when I pressed her about whether the administration should send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which Trump opposes. “I’d have to know about the facts on the ground,” she said. But Farage, Johnson and Truss are betting that the benefits of being a transatlantic Trump acolyte well outweigh the risks. And there might be more to it than personal vanity tours and cushy earnings. The sense of grievances unheard or unaddressed that first elevated Trump to power have echoes across the Atlantic: worries about national decline, a feeling that traditional parties have lost touch with voters and a capacity for making Barnum-style entertainment out of the business of politics. It is a long way from being interrupted by the Speaker of the House of Commons shouting, “Order, order!”- Whether it is a flattering transatlantic afterlife for fallen leaders or a precursor to pitch for power at Westminster for Farage (who tells me that, like Trump, he is “building an unstoppable movement”) the MAGA circuit is the place to be — even if it’s not where everybody knows your name. It is also about embodying something these political pilgrims reckon their rivals fail to grasp: namely, the way one man’s MAGA movement has redefined Conservatism and opened up space for imitators in Europe to identify with more than their own election flops — and for newcomers to seek to remake their own political landscape. After all, if it happened to America, it might turn out to be a bankable export.

Poland and Romania both scrambled jets overnight in their airspaces in response to a Russian bombardment in western Ukraine, close to the borders of both NATO countries. Moscow unleashed a wave of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight, targeting the western cities of Lviv and Ternopil. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes, which damaged residential apartment buildings far from the country’s eastern front line, killed nine people and injured dozens, with others possibly trapped under rubble. Warsaw’s operational command said in a post on X it had deployed “quick-reaction fighter pairs and an early warning aircraft” as a precaution, adding “ground-based air defence and radar surveillance systems” were at “the highest state of readiness.”  Polish authorities also shut two airports, Rzeszow and Lublin, in the southeast of the country amid Russia’s aerial assault.  Romania’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced it had scrambled four jets — two German Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft and two Romanian Air Force F-16s — shortly after midnight in response to a drone incursion about 5 miles into Romanian airspace.   Corneliu Pavel, the ministry’s spokesperson, told Romanian outlet Digi24 the jets had the green light to shoot down the drone but decided not to when its signal vanished.  Both countries’ operations involved NATO allies, with the Polish operational command thanking the alliance and fellow members Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany for their assistance in monitoring Poland’s airspace.   Russia’s war in Ukraine has spilled over in recent days, with a Romanian village evacuated Monday when a gas tanker across the river in a Ukrainian port was set ablaze by a Russian strike.  A section of the train route between Warsaw and Lublin, which connects to Ukraine, was also blown up by saboteurs over the weekend, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  Russia’s overnight assault on Ukraine also targeted Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro, Zelenskyy said, and he called on additional air support for Ukraine and more punishing sanctions on Moscow. “Every brazen attack against ordinary life proves that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient,” he warned.

President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he will allow Saudi Arabia to purchase F-35 stealth fighter planes, a move that will likely anger Israel as the U.S. deepens ties with another Middle East powerhouse. Trump announced his plan ahead of a Tuesday meeting at the White House with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader. “I am planning on doing that,” he told reporters when asked if he intended to allow Saudi Arabia access to America’s most advanced fighter jet. “They want to buy them. They’ve been a great ally.” Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia’s assistance with the U.S. missile strikes this year that he said “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites. He also seemed to confirm that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia will sign a security agreement, although he offered no details about its parameters. The two-day visit by Mohammed, which will continue on Wednesday with a joint U.S.-Saudi investment conference at the Kennedy Center in Washington, marks a significant moment in the relationship. The president will effectively decouple a broader strengthening of economic and security ties from his long-held goal of convincing Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, a priority that has been derailed by the conflict in Gaza. But actually delivering the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia would prove a massive and geopolitically fraught undertaking. Spinning production lines into high gear to fill the orders for Saudi F-35s could take years, as could training pilots to fly them. And lawmakers or future administrations could halt the process before it’s complete. “Politically this signals a strong commitment by the U.S. agreeing to sell its most advanced fifth-generation fighter to a country in the Middle East other than Israel,” said Firas Maksad at the Eurasia Group. But, he noted, the contracting process for arms sales can take years, and “there will be opportunities in the future for Congress to put a hold on it.” While Israel has not expressed public opposition to the deal, a potential U.S. sale of fighter jets to Riyadh could upend Israel’s “qualitative military edge,” a longstanding American law that ensures Pentagon weapons that flow into the Middle East do not erode Tel Aviv’s military advantages. That means that Israel could weigh in on the technology and weapons that go on board the jet, such as the sophistication of the sensors or the range of its missiles. The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If the deal moves forward, it would make the third major arms package Trump has agreed to with the Saudi regime between his two terms. The U.S. in May announced a $142 billion arms and security package, which is said to include air and missile defenses, maritime assets, and other weapons and support. Trump, in his first term, also announced a $120 billion weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, although most of that included items negotiated under the Obama administration. Details of both packages were kept vague and it remains unclear how many have actually led to signed contracts. The Trump administration in 2020 agreed to sell F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates as part of a wider push to get the Gulf nation to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. Some U.S. officials pushed back at the plan due to the U.A.E.’s close relationship with China, and the deal was put on hold by the Biden administration in 2021. It eventually fell apart after the Biden team said they would impose restrictions on shared technology as part of the deal. Saudi Arabia is a major purchaser of American weapons, most notably the kingdom’s $15 billion purchase of the Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense system, known as THAAD, during the first Trump administration in 2018. The U.S. is likely to gear the sale toward making Saudi Arabia’s military more able to cooperate with the Pentagon. “The emphasis is going to be on interoperability,” said Bilal Saab, a former Pentagon official focused on the region. “We want them to operate the machinery with us. It’s going to have some minimum requirements.”

Ukraine will import gas from Greece to help secure its energy supply for the coming winter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. The Ukrainian leader said the deal “will be another gas supply route to secure imports for the winter as much as possible.” The agreement will “cover nearly €2 billion needed for gas imports to compensate for the losses in Ukrainian production caused by Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. Ukraine has also prepared a deal with France for “a significant strengthening of our combat aviation, air defense, and other defense capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader is in Athens Sunday to meet with Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. After visting France on Monday, Zelenskyy will travel to Spain on Tuesday. Spain is “another strong country that has joined the partners in the initiatives that really help us,” Zelenskyy said, although he did not mention a specific deal with Madrid. “Our top priorities today are air defense, systems and missiles for air defense,” Zelenskyy said in the statement. “Full financing will be secured” for the Greek deal from Ukranian government funds, funding from European banks with guarantees from the European Commission, Ukranian banks, with help from  “European partners” and Norway, the statement said. The country is also undertaking “active work” with partners in the U.S., it said. Ukraine is also working with Poland and Azerbaijan on energy supplies, and “we very much count on long-term contracts,” Zelenskyy said.  

KYIV — Russian forces launched a massive attack Friday on Kyiv, killing four people and wounding 27, including a pregnant woman, Ukrainian authorities reported.  “This was a deliberately calculated attack aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a morning statement. “In Kyiv alone, dozens of apartment buildings have been damaged. The Azerbaijani embassy was hit by debris from an Iskander missile. The main target of the attack was Kyiv, and strikes also hit Kharkiv and Odesa regions,” he added. The bombardment, which included 430 drones and 18 ballistic missiles, started at midnight and continued until early morning Friday, with multiple fires burning around Kyiv. “Russians are hitting residential buildings. There are a lot of damaged high-rise buildings throughout Kyiv, in almost every district,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration. Heating went down in two districts after the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Zelenskyy said Ukraine is responding to the Kremlin’s attacks with long-range strikes on Russian territory and urged the world to stop Moscow with sanctions and restock Kyiv’s air defense.  “Russia is still able to sell oil and build its schemes. All of this must end. A great deal of work is underway with partners to strengthen our air defense, but it is not enough. We need reinforcement with additional systems and interceptor missiles,” Zelenskyy said. Kyiv’s drones also hit a Russian oil terminal and port in Novorossiysk, local governor Andrei Kravchenko said in a statement. Drone debris hit several residential buildings and cars around the city, and one person was injured, according to the Russian official.