French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday night that a truce between Russia and Ukraine could be just weeks away. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
French President Emmanuel Macron said a truce between Russia and Ukraine could be just weeks away, paving the way for sustainable peace negotiations, but warned it must be a “substantial” deal backed by security guarantees to be credible.
“It’s feasible to have a truce, at least, and start negotiating for a sustainable peace but we need something substantial for Ukraine, for the Europeans and their security and for the United States and its credibility,” Macron told Fox News in Washington on Monday night after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. Advertisement
“It could be done in the weeks to come,” said Macron, adding that while he believed Trump’s intervention was a “game changer” negotiators should proceed with great caution in order to avoid a repeat of a 2014 cease-fire that collapsed after four months.
“For me the sequence is negotiation between the United States and Russia and the United States and Ukraine followed by a truce on air and sea infrastructures that if it is not respected, it would be the best evidence of the fact that Russia is not serious,” Macron said. Advertisement
“During this period of time, we negotiate on security guarantees, lands and territories and reconstruction. At the end of this period you will have a peace treaty and a peace agreement.”
Macron said security guarantees that made sense would have to be worked out but could involve boosting Ukraine’s ability to maintain a strong army — at least 800,000 troops — that Russia would take seriously, or, if called for, a French-British-led European peacekeeping presence, with a U.S.-backstop.
Trump’s proposed rare earth minerals-sharing deal between the United States and Ukraine would be one of the best ways to secure those U.S. guarantees for Ukraine’s sovereignty, Marcon said, and that he supported it for that reason.
During talks that lasted almost two hours earlier Monday, Trump told Macron their meeting was an “important step” toward achieving permanent peace between Russia and Ukraine and that he expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House as early as this week
Macron hailed Trump’s decision to work with Zelensky and committed Europe to taking on a greater role in supporting Ukraine.
However, in their post-meeting press briefing, Macron ruled out any deal that amounted to a surrender, referring repeatedly to necessary security guarantees. Advertisement
Trump made no mention of guarantees, saying only that he wanted a cease-fire soon and that Europe must share the cost and burden of bringing peace to Ukraine for the long term with the United States.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their assaults on civilian centers across the eastern half of Ukraine, killing two people and injuring 36 in overnight strikes with missiles, glide bombs and artillery fire.
Cities and towns were hit in the provinces of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson and Kyiv.
