The Ukrainian President today urged Europe to prove it can defend itself, at the start of the Kyiv Allies summit, meeting in Paris, in the absence of the United States, to discuss security guarantees and a possible peace agreement.
Europe can defend itself. We need to prove it," Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media, accompanying his message with a family photo of the leaders present in Paris.
Around 30 countries - the so-called "coalition of the willing" - began final discussions in Paris today on "security guarantees" for Ukraine, including a possible European military deployment, as part of a future peace agreement with Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron has summoned the leaders of nearly 30 countries allied with Ukraine to Paris for a new summit to finalise the security guarantees to be provided to Kyiv in the event of a peace agreement with Russia.
In addition to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who was already received at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday evening, where he received the promise of new French military aid of two billion euros, Emmanuel Macron will receive, among others, the Prime Ministers of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, the British, Keir Starmer, and Italy, Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Turkish Vice-President Cevdet Yilmaz.
NATO chief Mark Rutte is also expected, as are other European Union leaders.
After a series of political and military meetings organised successively since mid-February by Paris and London, the time has come to "draw operational conclusions", the French presidency explained.
The Franco-British duo is leading the parallel process of negotiations initiated by Donald Trump's United States with Kyiv on the one hand and Moscow on the other, to end the war three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, after negotiations in Saudi Arabia mediated by Washington, an agreement was announced, subject to conditions, for a truce in the Black Sea and a moratorium on attacks on energy installations.
But since Wednesday, Russian and Ukrainian authorities have accused each other of wanting to disrupt this initial agreement, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of having launched operations against energy facilities.
And despite the intense diplomatic meetings of recent weeks, the South Korean military on Thursday accused North Korea of having mobilised an additional 3,000 soldiers since the beginning of the year to support the Russian invasion, in addition to the 11,000 already sent, and of continuing to supply weapons to Moscow.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a trip to Jamaica, acknowledged on Wednesday that reaching a peace agreement "will not be easy" and "will take time", tempering the optimism expressed for weeks by Donald Trump.
For Emmanuel Macron, by continuing to attack Ukraine, Russia "has shown its willingness to continue the war", considering that it is "too early" to think about lifting sanctions on Moscow.
"Russia is playing for time, we must continue to maintain pressure," the Ukrainian president added on Wednesday evening.
The two officials called on Moscow to accept a full 30-day ceasefire "without preconditions".
Most countries in the European Union (EU) and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) want to finalise decisions on "security guarantees" for Ukraine without waiting for US mediation.
According to London and Paris, these guarantees could take a variety of forms: on the "front line", aid to the Ukrainian army itself and, on the second and most discussed line, the possibility of sending a "security force" to Ukraine, made up of volunteer European countries, as part of a peace agreement.
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