US defense contractors are on shaky ground just a month into the new administration — taking a backseat to European peers — as mounting concerns over a deluge of policies including a tightened military spending budget send shock waves across the government-sensitive group.

Political and military leaders in Europe are fleshing out details of a plan for Ukraine once the guns fall silent.

Europeans are split on whether to send troops to Ukraine, with polls showing most citizens in the U.K, Denmark and Germany favor sending in peacekeepers, but elsewhere, the idea of troops getting sucked into the war is very unpopular.

France and Estonia will host a meeting of European defense ministers on Monday to discuss how to bolster support for Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that any plan to send European troops to Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping mission would be unacceptable for Russia and that it was monitoring such proposals with concern.

An emergency summit held by European leaders on Monday to discuss the United States' plans to end the war in Ukraine failed to yield any immediate results, with leaders split on the issue of sending peacekeeping troops to monitor a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.