Last year, the NATO allies agreed in The Hague to spend 3.5 percent of their GDP on direct defence expenditure. What does that mean in practice? Will Europe succeed in overcoming national interests, fragmented production, and slow coordination? Will Europe be able to defend Ukraine?

Justyna Gotkowska, Deputy Director and Head of the Security and Defence Department at the OSW Centre for Eastern Studies based in Warsaw, examines Europe’s security from the perspective of those closest to Russia’s war and its long-term consequences and her four-point plan for Ukraine, which offers a potential European counterstrategy in response to Russian ‘peace’ proposals.