Macron says European leaders will push Trump on Ukraine security guarantees, emphasizing that Russia’s only proposal amounts to a “peace of capitulation.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that European leaders would ask US President Donald Trump how far he would back security guarantees for Ukraine, adding he did not think Russia wanted peace, News.Az reports citing the Kiyv Post.
Macron was speaking from his summer residence after joining a call with other European leaders to coordinate their joint position before several of them join Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for a meeting with Trump in Washington on Monday.
Macron said “our will is to present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians” and to ask the Americans “to what extent” they are ready to contribute to the security guarantees that would be offered to Ukraine in a peace agreement.
On Moscow’s position, he said: “There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
And just as there could be no discussion of Ukrainian territory without Ukraine, so there could be “no discussions about the security of Europeans without them”, he added.
European leaders should attend the next summits on the Ukraine crisis, said Macron.
Trump on Sunday posted “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!” on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Trump’s Russia envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin had agreed in their summit on “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine.
But Zelensky, on a Brussels visit on Sunday hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin’s thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,” he said.
Von der Leyen hailed the US offer to provide security guarantees modelled on -- but separate from -- NATO’s collective security arrangement, known as Article 5.
“We welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share,” von der Leyen said.
