EU leaders to head to Kyiv, Macron to visit Trump to shore up Ukraine support
UK media reported that Britain and France were pushing ahead with discussions about a European force to secure a peace agreement in Ukraine.
Top European leaders will be shuttling next week between Brussels, Kyiv, Paris, London and Washington in an effort to shore up embattled Ukraine and its leader and figure out European security policy under very changed circumstances.
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On Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will mark that solemn anniversary with a visit to Kyiv. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will also be there.
But on the other side of the Atlantic on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron will be in Washington to meet US President Donald Trump to discuss Ukraine, the French Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also wants to travel to Washington next week to meet Trump, but possibly not on the same day as Macron. According to media reports, Starmer could be keen to present the concept for a peacekeeping force.
In light of Trump’s solo effort to find a possible peace solution for Ukraine, Macron held crisis talks with European heads of state and prime ministers this past Monday and then spoke to Trump on the phone. The Paris meeting discussed the question of European peacekeeping forces to secure a possible ceasefire.
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The British newspapers The Times and The Guardian reported that Britain and France were pushing ahead with discussions about a European force to secure a peace agreement in Ukraine. Such a force could include fewer than 30,000 troops, the newspapers wrote, citing military sources.
“We must succeed in building a system that guarantees Ukraine’s security,” said the French Foreign Ministry. “So this may eventually happen by sending troops, but at the moment that’s not the issue.”