Three hours of discussions on the future of Ukraine. The summit of the “volunteer coalition” was not elusive this Thursday, March 27, while a thirty allied countries of kyiv and belonging to the European Union or NATO participated in this meeting in Paris. The objective? “Finalizing” security guarantees “for the country invaded by Russia since February 2022.” Russia has no type of peace, “said Ukrainian president Volodyr Zelensky, present at this meeting. According to him, the work on the possible security guarantees provided by Europeans could translate “in the days and weeks to come”.
One of the main points mentioned during this summit concerned the attitude of the allies towards Western sanctions issued against Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin posed as conditions the lifting of many of them in order to accept the establishment of a ceasefire in the Black Sea, as negotiated with the United States in recent days. Finally, the countries of the coalition of support for Ukraine “unanimously acted” that the sanctions should not be lifted against Moscow, argued President Emmanuel Macron, at the end of the meeting with international leaders.
“No sense to end the sanctions”
A position shared by all the actors invited to Paris this Thursday. “This has no sense to put an end to the sanctions as long as peace is not really restored and we are unfortunately far away,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “On the contrary, what we have discussed is how we can increase the sanctions,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, who was standing next to the Ukrainian president. “We discussed plans to restore peace, mobilization of the armed forces and operational plans, whether air, land or sea.”
Beyond the issue of sanctions, other announcements were also expected. Emmanuel Macron said he would pilot, alongside Keir Starmer, the peace efforts of the Coalition of the Allies. In this context, a Franco-British mission will go “in the coming days in Ukraine” to prepare “what will be the format of the Ukrainian army” as well as a possible deployment of forces of allied countries after a possible peace agreement, the French president announced. Emmanuel Macron also promised that a decision to accelerate the payment of “loans decided in G7” by the EU had been decided during the discussions this Thursday.
“Reinsurance” forces sent to Ukraine?
During his press conference, Emmanuel Macron also explained wishing to involve Washington and Beijing in the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. He notably urged the United States to support European deployment in Ukraine to ensure respect for a hypothetical peace agreement found between kyiv and Moscow. But the French leader also pointed out that Europeans were preparing for a scenario without obtaining the American downstream on this approach.
In detail, what could this mission look like in Ukraine? “These reinsurance forces are not intended to be peacekeeping forces,” promises Emmanuel Macron. These would be neither “forces on the contact line” nor “forces which replace the Ukrainian armies”. These troops “would sign a long -term support and have a deterrence of a potential Russian aggression,” continued the French president. If the proposal was not “unanimous” between the allied countries on the issue, it would be forces from only “some member states” of the coalition.
Regarding China, Emmanuel Macron sent a rather direct message to Xi Jinping, the country’s leader. “I hope that President XI can have a completely active role to help us build this solid and lasting peace,” he said, evoking “the quality of the dialogue with Russia”. “And I think China is more than legitimate to do so as a permanent member of the Security Council and taking into account the initiatives previously taken,” he added. Beijing and Brasilia presented a freezing of the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia in the spring of 2024 – an approach firmly criticized by kyiv at the time.