WASHINGTON DC – The message from a visiting delegation of European lawmakers was blunt, urgent and unmistakably aimed at Capitol Hill: Russia will not negotiate its way out of war, Ukraine cannot survive on half-measures, and the West risks repeating the most costly mistakes of the 20th century.
Speaking to reporters in Washington Tuesday afternoon, on the eve of meetings with members of Congress and senior administration officials, lawmakers from nine European countries painted a grim picture of a winter war being waged not just with missiles but with cold, darkness and exhaustion – and warned that wavering US support could fracture NATO and embolden Moscow far beyond Ukraine.
“This is not a conflict that can be talked into peace,” one Ukrainian lawmaker said. “Russia can only be pressured into peace.”
The delegation – part of the informal “United for Ukraine” parliamentary network – includes senior lawmakers from Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain and Ukraine, many of them veterans of decades of transatlantic diplomacy.
Their visit comes as Congress debates new Ukraine funding, the White House recalibrates its negotiating posture, and questions swirl in Europe about whether Washington is losing focus.
“Freeze them to death”
Ukrainian lawmakers opened the briefing with a stark account of what they called Russia’s newest tactic: targeting civilian energy infrastructure to sap morale and force political concessions.
They described a winter marked by daily missile and drone strikes, leaving major cities without heat, electricity or water. The suffering, they insisted, has not weakened Ukrainian resolve.
“Trying to freeze a country into submission will not work,” lawmakers said, arguing that territorial concessions or loosely worded security assurances would only invite another invasion.
Several pointed to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum – which failed to protect Ukraine after it surrendered its nuclear arsenal – as a cautionary tale. Any future guarantees, they said, must be legally binding or anchored in NATO membership.
“There is only one real deterrent,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a member of the Verkhovna Rada and chair of the Committee on Integration of Ukraine to the EU. “Ukraine in NATO.”
Pressure, not partnership
Polish and Baltic lawmakers echoed the warning, framing the war as a test not only of Ukrainian survival but of European and American credibility.
Russia, they argued, does not respond to goodwill or diplomacy. “Tsarist, Bolshevik, Putin – it doesn’t matter,” they said. “Imperialism is part of the mentality. Russia only responds to power.”
Lithuanian lawmakers, some of whom came of age under Soviet rule, delivered some of the sharpest rhetoric of the session.
One described the delegation as “friends of Ukraine and enemies of the axis of evil,” urging Washington to see Ukraine as the front line of a broader struggle stretching from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Latin America.
“Defeat Russia in Ukraine,” lawmakers said. “That is the most effective way to defend Greenland, NATO and the West.”
The group praised recent US moves – tougher sanctions on Russian oil, crackdowns on the shadow fleet, expanded targeting permissions for Ukraine – but urged the administration and Congress to go further, faster.
Congress in the crosshairs
While much of the criticism was aimed at Moscow, a significant share was reserved – delicately, but unmistakably – for Washington.
Several lawmakers voiced alarm at stalled aid packages, what they called mixed signals from the administration and the growing influence of voices advocating negotiation at almost any cost.
They warned that cutting or delaying US assistance would land hardest not only on Ukrainian troops but on America’s credibility.
Finnish lawmaker Johannes Koskinen argued that Ukraine should be seen not as a burden but as a strategic asset: the second-strongest army in NATO, a hub for energy transit, a source of rare earth minerals and cutting-edge battlefield technology.
“Ukraine is not a problem,” he said. “Ukraine is a solution.”
The delegation acknowledged political realities on Capitol Hill, where a debate is brewing over a roughly $400 million Ukraine aid package.
But they pointed out that some of Europe’s smallest countries are now giving nearly as much as the US.
“We have three million people,” Lithuanian lawmaker Žygimantas Pavilionis and Ruslanas Baranovas said. “And we are matching Washington dollar for dollar.”
Greenland, Trump and a nervous alliance
The conversation repeatedly returned to an unexpected flashpoint: Greenland.
Several lawmakers criticized the renewed US focus on the Arctic territory, warning that talk of sovereignty and security could fracture NATO unity and distract from Ukraine.
“This is a huge mistake,” Swedish lawmaker Björn Söder said. “We need unity, not new divisions.”
The delegation also wrestled openly with the question hanging over nearly every European capital: how to deal with a White House they see as unpredictable and increasingly transactional.
Without naming the president directly, lawmakers criticized what they called neutrality between aggressor and victim, warning that appeasement – from Hitler to Putin – has always ended the same way.
“America used to defend victims,” one Baltic lawmaker said. “Now sometimes it plays neutral.”
They expressed concern about sidelining Ukraine from early negotiations, praising NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for holding the alliance together but warning that trust across the Atlantic is eroding.
NATO or nothing
Asked whether Europe could guarantee Ukraine’s security without the US, the answer was almost uniform: not credibly.
China, Iran, North Korea and even Cuban forces are already entangled in the war, lawmakers said, making American leadership indispensable.
Short of NATO membership, they argued, no arrangement would prevent Russia from regrouping and striking again.
“If Ukraine is not in NATO,” lawmakers said, “Russia will attack again. That is the only reason they oppose it.”
As the briefing ended and the lawmakers prepared for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, their message remained urgent and unresolved.
Europe, they said, has changed – rewriting defense budgets, sending weapons once thought unthinkable.
Now they are waiting to see whether Washington will do the same.