Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with European leaders in Paris on Thursday to discuss security guarantees aimed at preventing Russian attacks if a peace deal with Moscow is reached, his office said.
The Ukrainian leader was set to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for “intensive discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of Zelenskyy’s office, wrote on social media Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Starmer, who will jointly chair the talks, are heading up a “coalition of the willing,” seeking to come up with robust European proposals for how to protect Ukraine from a future Russian attack, should an elusive peace deal be struck.
Von der Leyen told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that Europe was drawing up “pretty precise plans” for a multinational troop deployment to Ukraine as part of post-conflict security guarantees that would have the backing of U.S. capabilities, Reuters reported.
However, Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius on Monday harshly dismissed as premature remarks by Von der Leyen, saying she lacked the mandate to discuss the matter.
The issue of Western-backed security guarantees for Ukraine has dominated diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis in recent weeks. Kyiv is pressing for a European peacekeeping force and NATO-style defense guarantees, if membership of the alliance is off the table.
Russia has long said it would never tolerate the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine.
Source: CGTN
