Peace in Ukraine?

Europe’s heads of government discuss Trump

Trump held a one-and-a-half-hour telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday and subsequently declared that he had agreed with him on the "immediate" start of negotiations on the future of Ukraine.

(Bild: Aris Messinis / AFP, Krone KREATIV)

Now that US President Donald Trump has said he wants to meet Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin "very soon" for Ukraine negotiations, the European states want to coordinate their positions in Paris on Monday afternoon - they are worried about being excluded from the talks.

The situation is serious: according to the Elysée Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron is receiving the heads of government of Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Italy, among others. NATO chief Marc Rutte and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are also expected to attend. Interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) will not be present.

Shortly before the European Ukraine Conference in Paris, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered to send soldiers to Ukraine after a peace agreement. Sweden would also consider contributing to a peace mission in Ukraine, said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday. However, he added that negotiations would have to continue before such a decision could be made.

Macron (left) welcomes NATO Secretary General Rutte at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

(Bild: APA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Other EU states were more reserved. Germany believes that the time has not yet come to address the issue of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. It is first necessary to wait and see "whether and how peace will emerge for Ukraine", said a government spokeswoman in Berlin. Similar statements were also made by the Foreign Ministry in Vienna on Monday.

Foreign Ministry: Question currently of a "purely hypothetical nature"
 The question of Austrian participation in a peace mission is "purely hypothetical at the present time", according to the Foreign Office. However, humanitarian aid for the war-torn country - Austria has mobilized around 300 million euros so far - will continue in any case. However, Vienna is not supplying any weapons or financing any arms deliveries, the Ministry emphasized.

According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Poland will not be sending any soldiers to Ukraine. However, it will continue to support its neighboring country as before, he said before his departure to Paris. Poland is committed to continuing to support Ukraine together with its European partners and the USA. His country has a special role to play in ensuring close cooperation between Europe, the USA and Ukraine. At the same time, Tusk called for a stronger presence of European security forces in Poland, which is a member of both the European Union and NATO.

Von der Leyen and Macron in Paris

(Bild: APA/AFP/Ludovic MARIN)

Kremlin welcomes Paris summit
Russia welcomed the special summit on the European course towards Ukraine in Paris. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov interpreted the meeting as a good opportunity to talk about ending the conflict rather than continuing it. Russia has repeatedly criticized that the war is being prolonged by the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.

Peskov called the question of a possible deployment of European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, which is being discussed in France and Great Britain, "difficult" because it involves armed forces from NATO member states. There are rules for such a deployment, he emphasized. "But so far there have been no concrete discussions on this," said Peskov. Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine almost three years ago in part to prevent the country from joining NATO.

Von der Leyen wants to receive US envoy for Ukraine
Von der Leyen wants to receive the US envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Brussels after the Paris meeting on Tuesday. Last Wednesday, Trump held a one-and-a-half-hour telephone conversation with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin - without consulting the Europeans in advance. Afterwards, Trump declared that he had agreed with the Kremlin leader to start negotiations on the future of Ukraine "without delay". This raised fears among Western allies that both Ukraine and its European partners would be excluded from the Ukraine talks.