Poznaks: Latvia should not change its Ukraine stance over US president's remarks
Latvian member of the European Parliament Reinis Poznaks says in a public statement that scaling back support for Ukraine to please US President Donald Trump would endanger Latvia's security. He argues that US policy is not only Trump and that Europe has not changed its position.
Reinis Poznaks, a Latvian member of the European Parliament, has said in a public statement that Latvia should not reduce its support for Ukraine just because US President Donald Trump sharply criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in early October. Poznaks calls such reasoning mistaken and dangerous to Latvia's security interests.
US policy is more than Trump
In the MEP's view, the US president's power has limits. He recalls that in February this year the US Supreme Court suspended tariffs imposed by Trump. When Ukraine ran into problems with Starlink communications in early October, nine US senators, including four Republicans, demanded an investigation. According to Poznaks, Ukraine has supporters in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he hopes their number will grow after the 3 November midterm elections. He also cites a poll in which 34% of Americans viewed Trump's performance positively and 61% negatively in early October.
He also points to Ukrainian experts' observation that neither the US currently has a full ambassador in Ukraine, nor Ukraine in the US, leaving no one to resolve disagreements diplomatically.
Europe's stance
Poznaks stresses that after Trump's statements European leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and Zelensky. In his view, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy do not want a conflict with the US president but are not ready to abandon Ukraine. He notes that soldiers from 13 countries serve in the NATO multinational brigade in Latvia, 12 of them European states, plus Canada.
Poznaks works in the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, which includes representatives of the political force of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He quotes Meloni's address to the Italian parliament: if Ukraine stops resisting, peace will not follow, but Soviet-style imperialism will return.
The MEP concludes that Latvia supports Ukraine because it is in its own security interest: the longer Ukraine resists Russian aggression, the fewer opportunities Russia has to threaten Latvia.
