French President Emmanuel Macron (left) shakes palms 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 Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
Ludovic Marin/AFP through Getty Pictures
PARIS and KYIV — French President Emmanuel Macron hosted high diplomats from the US, 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.
“Everybody needs to get peace. A strong and sustainable peace,” Macron stated whereas assembly the U.S. delegation at Élysée Palace. “The query is about phasing.”
The U.S. delegation included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, particular envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.
“Very productive conferences at Elysee Palace on efforts to finish the Ukraine-Russia warfare,” 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 International Minister Sergey Lavrov and stated the administration has “now offered to all events the outlines of a sturdy and lasting peace.” Witkoff has had a number of conferences with Russian President Vladimir Putin, together with last week in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ukraine has been pushing the U.S. to take a more durable stance on Russia, whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 and continues to say lives. Talking to journalists in Kyiv Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Witkoff “has adopted Russia’s technique.”
Ukrainians have criticized Witkoff for statements made to Fox News {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 Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has partially occupied the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“It’s extremely harmful as a result of he is consciously or unconsciously spreading Russian narratives,” Zelenskyy stated. “And he doesn’t have the mandate to debate Ukrainian territories, as a result of our territory belongs to our individuals.”
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 had been way more forceful of their condemnation, slamming Russia for a strike that killed 35 civilians and injured 100.
“I feel the [Trump] administration’s smooth response displays the continuation of their present coverage,” Zelenskyy stated. “I imagine they assume that this type of diplomacy, this format, will assist deliver the warfare to an finish.”
Trump has lengthy stated that he needs to finish the warfare shortly. He says he’s annoyed with each Kyiv and Moscow, at the same time as 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.
