French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that European leaders would ask US President Donald Trump how far he would back security guarantees for Ukraine, adding he did not think Russia wanted peace.
Macron was speaking from his summer residence after joining a call with other European leaders to coordinate their joint position before several of them join Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for a meeting with Trump in Washington on Monday.
Macron said “our will is to present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians” and to ask the Americans “to what extent” they are ready to contribute to the security guarantees that would be offered to Ukraine in a peace agreement.
On Moscow’s position, he said: “There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
And just as there could be no discussion of Ukrainian territory without Ukraine, so there could be “no discussions about the security of Europeans without them”, he added.
European leaders should attend the next summits on the Ukraine crisis, said Macron.
Trump on Sunday posted “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!” on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Trump’s Russia envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin had agreed in their summit on “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine.
But Zelensky, on a Brussels visit on Sunday hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin’s thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,” he said.
Von der Leyen hailed the US offer to provide security guarantees modelled on -- but separate from -- NATO’s collective security arrangement, known as Article 5.
“We welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share,” von der Leyen said.
Trump’s pivot to looking for a peace deal, not a ceasefire, aligns with the stance long taken by Putin, and which Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as Putin’s way to buy time with the intent of making battlefield gains.
Zelensky also said he saw “no sign” the Kremlin leader was prepared to meet him and Trump for a three-way summit, as had been floated by the US president.
The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the “coalition of the willing”.
They include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron,, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and von der Leyen.
Also heading to Washington will be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubbs, who get on well with Trump.
On Sunday they all held a video meeting to prepare their joint position.
Zelensky after a video conference hailed the decision by Washington to offer security guarantees to Ukraine.
“Security guarantees, as a result of our joint work, must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must be developed with Europe’s participation,” he said on social media.
Speaking to US broadcaster CNN, Witkoff said: “I’m hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we’re able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to NBC on Sunday, warned of “consequences” -- including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia -- if no peace deal is reached on Ukraine.
European leaders have expressed unease from the outset over Trump’s outreach to Putin, who has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join the EU or NATO. They were excluded from Trump’s summit with Putin.
Witkoff, in his CNN interview, said the United States was prepared to provide “game-changing” security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a process that would involve territorial “concessions”.