Can Europe defend itself alone?
On Thursday, after the US decided to halt military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, European leaders in Brussels agreed to a massive and unprecedented increase in defence spending.
The Guardian's Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, explains to Michael Safi that this €800bn fund marks a new era for the union and will mean tearing up fiscal rules to loosen borrowing.
For some member states, such as Germany, achieving this defensive autonomy will require profound constitutional changes. For other states, such as France, preparations have been under way for years.
Despite opposition from states such as Hungary, Henley explains that public sentiment across Europe is now broadly behind these changes. And yet the question remains – with long-term US support now in question, will all this arming up be enough to deter Russia?
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