French President Emmanuel Macron (left) shakes fingers with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequent to particular envoy Steve Witkoff (middle) and France’s international minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, earlier than a gathering on the Élysée presidential palace in Paris on Thursday.
Ludovic Marin/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Ludovic Marin/AFP through Getty Photographs
PARIS and KYIV — French President Emmanuel Macron hosted high diplomats from america, Germany, the UK and Ukraine on Thursday to debate efforts towards a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and attempt to salvage a fraying alliance between Europe and the Trump administration.
“Everyone wants to get peace. A robust and sustainable peace,” Macron stated whereas assembly the U.S. delegation at Élysée Palace. “The question is about phasing.”
The U.S. delegation included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, particular envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.
“Very productive meetings at Elysee Palace on efforts to end the Ukraine-Russia war,” Kellogg wrote on the social media platform X, together with {a photograph} of himself with Ukraine’s representatives.
The State Division stated Rubio later spoke with Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov and stated the administration has “now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace.” Witkoff has had a number of conferences with Russian President Vladimir Putin, together with final week in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ukraine has been pushing the U.S. to take a harder stance on Russia, whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 and continues to assert lives. Chatting with journalists in Kyiv Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Witkoff “has adopted Russia’s strategy.”
Ukrainians have criticized Witkoff for statements made to Fox Information {that a} potential peace deal may middle on the standing of 5 Ukrainian territories. The Kremlin illegally annexed the southern area of Crimea in 2014 and, since its full-scale invasion, has partially occupied the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“It’s very dangerous because he’s consciously or unconsciously spreading Russian narratives,” Zelenskyy stated. “And he does not have the mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories, because our territory belongs to our people.”
Requested about President Trump’s assertion calling Russia’s lethal Palm Sunday strike on the northeastern of Sumy “a mistake,” Zelenskyy declined to criticize Trump and identified that Rubio had condemned the strike. Ukraine’s president did add that European leaders have been way more forceful of their condemnation, slamming Russia for a strike that killed 35 civilians and injured 100.
“I think the [Trump] administration’s soft response reflects the continuation of their current policy,” Zelenskyy stated. “I believe they think that this kind of diplomacy, this format, will help bring the war to an end.”
Trump has lengthy stated that he desires to finish the warfare shortly. He says he’s pissed off with each Kyiv and Moscow, whilst his administration seems to have embraced Moscow’s account of the warfare.
Macron referred to as Zelenskyy earlier than and after Thursday’s conferences. Extra conferences are deliberate in London subsequent week.
Eleanor Beardsley reported from Paris and Joanna Kakissis from Kyiv.
