Great Britain said on Monday that there had been several possible proposals on the table for a possible ceasefire from Ukraine, after France launched a proposal for an initial truce of a month that could open the way to peace talks.
European countries, led by Great Britain and France, are considering options for a peace proposal, including Ukraine, after last week’s oval office rupture between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodyr Zelenskyy.
“There are clearly a certain number of options on the table,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman. “I do not embark on an execution comment on the options.”
The national security adviser of the White House, Mike Waltz, questioned about the activities of the weekend of Europe rallying to Zelenskyy, told journalists: “So we welcome Europe to intensify for Europe, but they must also invest in the ability to do so.”
France, Great Britain and potentially other European countries have proposed to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, but say that they would like the support of the United States, a proposal called “safety net”.
Zelenskyy says that a cease-fire must be delivered with explicit security guarantees from the West to guarantee that Russia, which has invaded Ukraine three years ago and holds around 20% of its territory, does not attack again. Trump refused to give such guarantees.
Starmer organized a summit of European leaders in London on Sunday and said that European leaders had agreed to create a Ukrainian peace plan to present in the United States.
In an interview given on his way to the summit, the French president Emmanuel Macron has raised the possibility of a cease-fire of a month, although so far, there has been no public approval of other allies.
“Such a truce on air, maritime and energy infrastructure would allow us to determine whether Russian president Vladimir Putin acts in good faith when he commits to a truce,” said French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot, about Macron’s proposal.
Get national news
For news that has an impact on Canada and worldwide, register for the safeguarding of news alerts that are delivered to you directly when they occur.
“And this is where real peace negotiations could begin.”
European terrestrial troops would only be deployed in Ukraine in a second phase, Macron said in the interview published in Le Figaro.
Zelenskyy, asked if he was aware of the plan mentioned by Macron, told journalists in London: “I am aware of everything.”
European countries are adapting to what some leaders describe as the greatest overthrow of politicians since Washington World War, especially after Friday rupture when Zelenskiy left the White House suddenly after dressing in front of the cameras by Trump and vice-president JD Vance.
The Ukrainian leader was in Washington to sign an agreement to give the United States access to Ukrainian minerals, but left without signing it.
Addressing Fox News, Waltz said Zelenskyy should apologize.
“What we need to hear President Zelenskyy is that he regrets what happened, he is ready to sign this mineral agreement and that he is ready to engage in peace talks,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask. We will see what is happening in the next 48 hours, but we are certainly trying to move forward in a positive way. »»
Merz says the oval faced “ not spontaneous ”
Friedrich Merz, the curator who becomes the German Chancellor after winning the largest share of the vote during an election a week ago, suggested that the argument of the Oval Bureau on Friday was a trap in advance for the Ukrainian leader.
“It was not a spontaneous reaction to Zelenskyy’s interventions, but obviously a climbed made,” he said.
“We must now show that we are able to act independently in Europe,” he said.
In private, European officials smoked what they considered as a betrayal of Ukraine, which had previously benefited from solid support from the United States since the invasion of Russia.
A senior civil servant said the day after the projection: “Donald Trump must choose if he wants to qualify as a free world leader, or leader in an extortion gang. The latter is not interesting for Europe. »»
But Europeans are also working hard to keep the United States on the side. Peter Mandelson, British ambassador to the United States, said that Ukrainian-American relations were to be reset, because Trump’s initiative to end the war was “the only spectacle of the city”.
Trump spoke by phone with Putin last month, then announced that the negotiations to end the war would begin to quickly blind the EU and Zelenskyy.
European leaders agreed that they had to spend more in defense to show Trump that the continent can protect himself. The European Union is expected to hold an emergency summit on Thursday.
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that she would inform the member states on Tuesday to strengthen European defense industry and the military capacities of the EU.
“We need a massive increase in defense, without any questions. We want lasting peace, but lasting peace can only be built on force, and force begins by strengthening us. »»
Russia found itself openly on Friday’s shock between Trump and Zelenskyy, praising Trump for changing American policy and denounced Zelenskyy for challenging Trump’s proposals.
“We see that the collective West partially began to lose its community, and a fragmentation of the collective West began,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
“There remains a group of countries which rather constitutes the War Party, which declares its desire to support Ukraine more in terms of support for war and to ensure the pursuit of hostilities.”
(Additional report by Sarah Young, Richard Lough, Makini Brice, Dmitry Antonov, Guy Faulconbridge, Doina Chiacu, Steve Holland and Angelo Amante; writing by Ingrid Melander; edition by Mark Heinrich and Peter Graff)
