European defense stocks rose Friday as European leaders gathered in Brussels to back Ukraine's president, while U.S. President Donald Trump sharpened his criticism of Kyiv. The moves raised doubts over continued American military and intelligence support.
Rheinmetall rose 4.4% in European trading by 08:52 GMT, as defense shares rallied. Leonardo SpA gained 3.9%, Saab added 3.5%, Thales rose 2.6% and BAE Systems advanced 1.8%. Germany's Hensoldt rallied about 6%.
Trump blames Ukraine's refinery strikes for oil prices
Trump faces U.S. midterm elections in November and has blamed Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries for higher energy prices that could hurt him at the ballot box. According to Newsmax, Trump said: "All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher."
The comments followed a diplomatic clash. Trump announced last weekend that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop targeting each other's energy facilities, but Kyiv then said it was abandoning the arrangement and hit a refinery southeast of Moscow. Separately, a U.S. official said Wednesday that Washington is considering easing sanctions on shadow fleet vessels that carry Russian oil.
Kyiv's funding gap and Russian strikes
Ukraine's allies fear the U.S. could scale back intelligence sharing and weapons support. Zelenskiy told the summit that Kyiv needs more than energy help for the winter, saying the package also includes air defence and funding.
Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said Ukraine still faces an unfunded budget gap of $32.6 billion for next year, not counting an estimated $40 billion in direct military supplies from allies. Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he was unhappy with how few countries have pledged new financial support, though he expects several to announce more military aid soon.
On the battlefield, Russian drone strikes killed three people in Kharkiv and left 370,000 people in the Volyn region without power. A day earlier, Russia moved to place the local assets of French, German, Swedish and Dutch companies under temporary management, in retaliation for EU backing of Ukraine.
Source: Investing.com
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