European leaders have stated they’re prepared to provide Ukraine safety ensures and warned that it will be harmful for Kyiv to conform to a ceasefire with out a negotiated peace settlement in place with Moscow, officers stated.
The provide of a European safety dedication to Ukraine was made at a gathering in Paris on Monday, referred to as by French President Emmanuel Macron after United States President Donald Trump excluded European allies and Kyiv’s management from negotiations, on account of happen in Saudi Arabia, with Russia on a deal to finish the warfare in Ukraine.
“Prepared and prepared. That’s my take from at this time’s assembly in Paris. Europe is prepared and prepared to step up. To steer in offering safety ensures for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-Normal Mark Rutte stated in a put up on social media after the emergency assembly.
“The small print will have to be determined however the dedication is obvious,” Rutte stated.
A European Union official stated after the assembly that the leaders have been “prepared to supply safety ensures, with modalities to be examined with every occasion, relying on the extent of American help”.
“We agree with President Trump on a ‘peace via power’ strategy,” the official stated, summarising the results of the assembly.
“We consider it’s harmful to conclude a ceasefire with out a peace settlement on the identical time,” the official additionally stated.
The three hours of emergency talks on the Elysee Palace in Paris adopted US statements on Ukraine final week that threw a once-solid transatlantic alliance into turmoil. In addition they adopted a name between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin amid fears that Washington is able to abandon Ukraine and embrace the Kremlin, whereas additionally giving the chilly shoulder to the US’s conventional European allies.
I simply had a protracted dialog with President of France @EmmanuelMacron following his assembly at this time with different European leaders to debate the worldwide scenario, the state of affairs in Europe, and safety ensures for Ukraine.
We share a standard imaginative and prescient: safety ensures…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 17, 2025
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated late on Monday that he had spoken with Macron about safety ensures for his nation, including {that a} weak ceasefire with Russia would solely function a ”prelude” to extra Russian aggression towards his or different nations in Europe.
“We share a standard imaginative and prescient: safety ensures should be sturdy and dependable,” Zelenskyy stated on social media.
“Another resolution with out such ensures – reminiscent of a fragile ceasefire – would solely function one other deception by Russia and a prelude to a brand new Russian warfare towards Ukraine or different European nations,” he stated.
‘We got here to barter with American colleagues’
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Saudi Arabia with the US Nationwide Safety adviser, Mike Waltz, and Center East envoy Steve Witkoff for talks on Tuesday with Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin international coverage adviser Yuri Ushakov, in response to studies.
Ushakov stated on Monday, upon arrival in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, that talks on Ukraine could be strictly bilateral, Russia’s RIA state information company reported.
“We got here to barter with American colleagues,” RIA cited Ushakov as saying. “These are bilateral talks, purely bilateral. There could be no trilateral talks in Riyadh.”
Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Washington, DC stated the Trump administration’s communication with Moscow and talks on a peace settlement mark a reversal of the earlier US President Joe Biden’s administration’s strategy to Ukraine.
“With Biden, we heard a lot affirmation about Ukraine’s standpoint within the warfare, and it’s solely been the alternative since Trump took workplace,” Zhou-Castro stated.
“Coming from [Trump’s] administration, from his secretary of defence, we’ve heard the US aspect actually on Russia’s negotiating positions, saying that the US finds it now to be unrealistic for Ukraine to reclaim all of its misplaced territory to Russia, and not endorsing a NATO membership for Ukraine,” she stated.
“Each very bitter capsules to swallow for Ukraine, which is saying that it gained’t swallow them in any respect,” she added.
“The US aspect has not telegraphed any expectations for tomorrow however the Russian International Ministry has stated that this is able to pave the best way in direction of a gathering in individual between Trump and Putin someplace down the highway.”
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the assembly alongside Macron in Paris. Additionally on the assembly have been Dutch Premier Dick Schoof, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, NATO’s Rutte, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.