Macron says 26 countries ready for Ukraine truce role
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Twenty-six countries are ready to take part in an international force as part of security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron says after a summit meeting of Ukraine’s allies.
Macron said he, fellow European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a call with US President Donald Trump after their summit and US contributions to the guarantees would be finalised in the coming days.
The meeting of 35 leaders from the “coalition of the willing” – of mainly European countries – was intended to finalise security guarantees and ask Trump for the backing that Europeans say would be vital to make such guarantees viable.
“As a form of reassurance, 26 countries have committed to deploying troops to Ukraine, where they will be present on land, on sea or in the air,” Macron told reporters, standing alongside Zelenskiy at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
Macron said security guarantees would involve above all commitments to rebuild and bolster Ukraine’s armed forces.
Germany and other countries pledged they would be involved in that effort.
But German officials said they would only decide on a military commitment once conditions were clear, including the extent of US involvement in security guarantees.
Macron did not say which countries had agreed to provide troops but France and the United Kingdom are among those that have indicated a willingness to take part in a force to reassure Ukraine and deter Russia from attacking the country again.
On his call with the coalition leaders, Trump said European countries must stop purchasing Russian oil that he said is helping the Kremlin fund its war against Ukraine, a White House official said.
“The president also emphasised that European leaders must place economic pressure on China for funding Russia’s war efforts,” the official said.
Macron said the coalition and the United States had agreed to work more closely on future sanctions, notably on Russia’s oil and gas sector, and on China.
Members of the coalition have talked for months at various levels to define their prospective military support for Ukraine if and when there is a final truce – still a remote prospect.
But coalition governments have said any European military role would need its own US security guarantees as a “backstop”.
Trump has made no explicit commitment to go that far.
His special envoy Steve Witkoff met French, UK, German, Italian and Ukrainian senior diplomats ahead of the summit, before briefly attending the opening session.
Two European officials said the coalition also wanted to highlight a lack of progress toward direct peace talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy since Trump hosted Putin in August, and prod Trump to raise pressure on Russia now.
Putin told Ukraine on Wednesday there was a chance to end the war via negotiations “if common sense prevails,” an option he said he preferred, although he was ready to end it by force if that was the only way.
Putin also ruled out the deployment of troops from countries in the NATO military alliance to Ukraine as part of a peace settlement.
But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte dismissed his objections.
“Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It’s a sovereign country,” he said at a conference in Prague before joining the Paris summit by video link.
“Russia has nothing to do with this,” he said.
“I think we really have to stop making Putin too powerful.”
Reuters
