In Paris, Western leaders have spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the possibility of providing security guarantees in the event of a peace agreement with Russia.
Leaders from Europe, Australia, Japan, and Canada as well as Zelenskyy and Steve Witkoff, the United States envoy, will attend the summit in Paris on Thursday. The attempt to agree security guarantees for Kyiv is still tense even as ceasefire negotiations stall.
To ensure that any agreement between Russia and Ukraine would be reached, the summit is expected to discuss how many troops those nations included in the “coalition of the willing” could commit.
However, the discussions are heavily influenced by President Donald Trump’s persistent reluctance to deploy troops and Russia’s opposition to sending foreign troops to Ukraine.
The “coalition” nations’ leaders, led by France and the United Kingdom, are attempting to convince Trump to support their efforts and fulfill their pledge to provide US military support.
According to a report from the Reuters news agency, Witkoff met with senior European officials before the meeting, quoting two diplomats.
On Thursday, NATO’s Mark Rutte asserted that Russia is not involved in any Ukrainian troop deployment.
Why do we care what Russia thinks about Ukrainian troops? It is a self-governing nation. They are not in charge of making their own decisions, he said.
It is up to the security guarantee forces in Ukraine to support a peace deal, they say. Rutte said during a trip to Prague that no one else could make a decision.
The coalition leaders endorsed plans for security guarantees drafted by their militaries the day before, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who was speaking alongside Zelenskyy in Paris.
According to Macron, “We are ready, Europarcians, to provide security guarantees to Ukraine until a signed peace is reached,” adding that it was now necessary to assess Russia’s sincerity in regards to putting an end to the conflict.
Without going into specifics, European officials informed news agencies that the “technical” plans are complete.
According to an outline sent to attendees, British and French army chiefs were scheduled to give the leaders a Thursday briefing, according to Reuters.
However, European leaders have made it clear that any troop withdrawal agreement will only be possible with US support.
