European leaders have mentioned they’re prepared to present Ukraine safety ensures and warned that it will be harmful for Kyiv to comply with a ceasefire with no negotiated peace settlement in place with Moscow, officers mentioned.
The supply of a European safety dedication to Ukraine was made at a gathering in Paris on Monday, known as by French President Emmanuel Macron after United States President Donald Trump excluded European allies and Kyiv’s management from negotiations, attributable to 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 guide in offering safety ensures for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-Basic Mark Rutte mentioned in a publish on social media after the emergency assembly.
“The small print will should be determined however the dedication is obvious,” Rutte mentioned.
A European Union official mentioned 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 assist”.
“We agree with President Trump on a ‘peace by energy’ method,” the official mentioned, summarising the results of the assembly.
“We consider it’s harmful to conclude a ceasefire with no peace settlement on the similar time,” the official additionally mentioned.
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 state of affairs, 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 mentioned 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 in opposition to his or different nations in Europe.
“We share a standard imaginative and prescient: safety ensures should be strong and dependable,” Zelenskyy mentioned on social media.
“Another determination with out such ensures – equivalent to a fragile ceasefire – would solely function one other deception by Russia and a prelude to a brand new Russian warfare in opposition to Ukraine or different European nations,” he mentioned.
Melinda Haring, a nonresident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Middle, informed Al Jazeera that Europe was “caught off guard” by Washington’s overtures in direction of Russia.
“It is extremely unusual that the aggressor is assembly with the US with out Ukraine. The longstanding coverage of the US has been, ‘nothing about Ukraine with out Ukraine’,” Haring mentioned.
“So it’s undoubtedly a change in coverage. Nevertheless it is also – probably the most charitable interpretation is – that the US is attempting to see if Russia is lastly severe [about peace],” she mentioned.
‘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 Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin international coverage adviser Yuri Ushakov, in response to stories.
Ushakov mentioned on Monday, upon arrival in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, that talks on Ukraine can 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 mentioned 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 method 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 mentioned.
“Coming from [Trump’s] administration, from his secretary of defence, we’ve heard the US facet 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 mentioned.
“Each very bitter tablets to swallow for Ukraine, which is saying that it gained’t swallow them in any respect,” she added.
“The US facet has not telegraphed any expectations for tomorrow however the Russian Overseas Ministry has mentioned that this is able to pave the best way in direction of a gathering in particular person 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.