US support for Ukraine security guarantees will be finalised in the coming days, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, after a call with, among others, US President Donald Trump, following a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine.
"The conclusions of this call are simple: in the coming days, we will finalise US support and [the related] security guarantees. The United States, as I said, has been involved in every stage of the process," Mr Macron told reporters.
About 26 out of 35 participating countries in a summit in Paris committed to taking part in a reassurance force for Ukraine - on land, at sea or in the air, according to Mr Macron. Leaders also discussed further economic sanctions on Russia should it continue refusing peace talks.
Standing beside Mr Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin was doing everything to delay peace negotiations. "We can see that Russia rejects any peace deal," he said. "Only pressure works."
The Ukrainian leader added that he had been informed by US officials that Mr Putin expects him to travel to Moscow for peace talks, which he described as an indication that Russia anticipates they will fail. A meeting with Mr Putin, however, remains "necessary," Mr Zelenskyy added.
The Paris summit, held both in person and by video-link, of the “coalition of the willing” brought together leaders from Europe's largest countries, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan.
Members of the coalition, which does not formally include the US, have been discussing for months how they might provide military support to Ukraine, aiming to deter Russia from attacking again if and when a final truce – still a distant prospect – is reached.
France, the UK and Belgium have said they would be willing to send troops to Ukraine to act as peacekeepers. Mr Macron did not name the 26 countries that pledged support on Thursday, but he clarified that the security guarantees were compatible with allies' commitments to Nato.
Before talks, diplomats had said that significant differences remain among allies on the issue. A German government source said Berlin recognises the political pressure to agree, but sees militarily challenges given troop commitments to Lithuania. Italy has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine.
Some have said any European military role would require separate US security guarantees as a “backstop”, which the US has not formally provided.
Pressure on Putin
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who joined the summit remotely, said it was clear that leaders “now needed to go even further to apply pressure on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities”, according to a Downing Street representative. Mr Starmer “also welcomed announcements from Coalition of the Willing partners to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine to further bolster the country's supplies”.
Mr Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met French, British, German, Italian and Ukrainian senior diplomats before the summit, before briefly attending the opening session. Mr Zelenskyy was expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with Mr Witkoff, according to a person familiar with the matter.
European officials said that the aim was to send a political signal to Mr Trump, highlighting the lack of progress towards direct peace talks between Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy since Mr Trump hosted the Russian President in August, and encouraged him to raise pressure on Moscow.
Having recently hosted a lavish event in Alaska, Mr Trump on Wednesday accused Mr Putin of conspiring with China and North Korea after the three countries' leaders staged a show of unity in Beijing at a commemoration of the end of the Second World War.
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday he expected that the meeting would pave the way for more intense discussions with Washington on what guarantees it could provide.
Russia is emphatically opposed to any foreign troop presence in Ukraine. Mr Rutte said Russia's views were irrelevant. “Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine, it's a sovereign country. Russia has nothing to do with this,” he said at a conference in Prague before joining the summit on Thursday. “I think we really have to stop making Putin too powerful.”
