Investing.com -- Defense shares rallied Friday as European leaders gathered in Brussels to back President Volodymyr Zelenskiy while U.S. President Donald Trump sharpened his criticism of Kyiv, raising doubts over continued American military and intelligence support.
Rheinmetall rose 4.4% in European trading by 08:52 GMT, while Leonardo SpA and Thales gained 3.9% and 2.6%. Saab added 3.5% and BAE Systems advanced 1.8%. Germany's Hendsoldt rallied about 6%.
Trump, facing U.S. midterm elections in November, has blamed Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries for higher energy prices that could hurt him at the ballot box. "All he's doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that's a disgrace," he said in an interview with Newsmax.
The comments followed a diplomatic clash. Trump announced last weekend that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop targeting each other's energy facilities. Kyiv then declared 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.
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. "The winter package is not only energy, it's also air defence and funding," he said.
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 for Ukraine, though he expects several to announce more military aid soon.
Russian drone strikes killed three people in Kharkiv and left 370,000 people in the Volyn region, which borders Poland, without power. Kyiv introduced emergency power cuts during Russian strikes. 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. President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian attacks on refineries had caused "nothing particularly significant."
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