Macron suggests that Ukraine’s truce could be weeks after conversations with Trump

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said that a truce could be agreed between Ukraine and Russia in the coming weeks.

I was talking to Fox News in Washington after conversations with Donald Trump in the White House on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

The president of the United States, who suggested that the war could end “in a matter of weeks,” insisted that Europe should assume the cost and burden of any peace maintenance agreement for Ukraine.

Macron said that any peace agreement in Ukraine “should not be a surrender of Ukraine” and must be supported by security guarantees.

Trump’s arrival for a second mandate to the White House was a “change of play,” said the French leader.

He said he thought it was “feasible” to talk about a truce in war and the beginning of negotiations for sustainable peace in a matter of weeks.

Macron said he had talked to 30 other European leaders and allies and many of them were willing to be part of the security guarantees for Ukraine.

It was, he said, working with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a proposal to send troops to the region.

“Do not go to the front line, not go in confrontation, but be in some places, being defined by the treaty, as a presence to maintain this peace and our collective credibility with the backup of the United States,” Macron said.

The negotiations in an end of the fighting, he added, would cover “security guarantees, land and territories.”

He said that one of the best ways to ensure a commitment from the United States with Ukrainian sovereignty would be through an agreement on critical minerals, currently negotiated by Washington and kyiv.

In an additional signal of the Washington change on the global stage, a resolution drafted by the United States that adopted a neutral position on the conflict was adopted by the UN Security Council. He was supported by Russia but with France and the United Kingdom abstaining.

At a joint press conference after his meeting with Macron on Monday, Trump did not mention security guarantees, but said that the cost and burden of ensuring peace in Ukraine should be paid by European nations and not only in states Joined.

Macron replied that Europa understood the need to “share more just the security burden” and added that Monday’s conversations had shown a way to follow.

Trump said he wanted a stop the fire as soon as possible, and added that he would visit Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin once he agreed.

Macron, however, promoted a more considered approach that involves a truce and then a broader peace agreement that would include clear guarantees to protect a long -term Ukraine.

“We want peace quickly, but we don’t want a weak agreement,” he said.

However, the couple agreed that any peace agreement should include the deployment of the European Peace Maintenance Forces in Ukraine. That suggestion has been rejected by Russia.

“They would not be in the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to make sure that peace is respected,” Macron said in the Oval office.

Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept that. “I specifically asked that question. He has no problem with her,” he said.

The French president praised Trump’s efforts to interact with Putin in recent weeks, saying that there had been “good reasons” to do so.

Trump refused to call Putin a “dictator” after using the term last week to describe the president of Ukraine.

“I don’t know when we’ll talk,” Trump said. “At some point I will meet with President Putin.”

He also invited the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House, to conclude an agreement to share some of the country’s natural resources. “You can come this week or next week,” Trump said. “I would love to meet him.”

While there were no moments of open disagreement between Trump and Macron, the French president interrupted his American counterpart in the Oval office to withdraw his statement that EU’s help to Ukraine was in the form of loans.

“No, to be honest, we pay. We pay 60% of the total effort,” Macron said.

“If you believe that, it’s fine for me,” Trump replied.

Zelensky attended an event with global representatives in Kyiv where He said “we hope to end this war this year.”

Other leaders, even from the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, spoke by video link. There was no American representation.

The German president, Frank-Walter, Steinmeier, addressed the recently heated relations between Moscow and Washington.

“Russia may have won an open ear in the White House, but they have not won an inch of legitimacy,” he said.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told attendees: “We must accelerate the delivery of weapons and ammunition.”

She said the war was still “the most central and consistent crisis for the future of Europe.”

Also on Monday, The United States was on the side twice with Russia in votes at the UN Related to war in Ukraine.

The two countries opposed for the first time to a European Draft resolution condemning Moscow’s actions and supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which was finally approved by the UN General Assembly (UGA) in New York.

The members of the UNGA supported the European resolution for 93 votes, but the United States did not abstain, but in reality he voted against Russia, Israel, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Hungary and another 11 states.

The United States and Russia then supported a resolution drafted by the United States in the UN Security Council asking for the end of the conflict, but did not contain criticism from Russia.

The resolution of the Security Council was approved, but two key USed allies, the United Kingdom and France, abstained in the vote after their attempts to amend the writing were vetoed.

Meanwhile, the EU and the United Kingdom approved a new round of sanctions against Russia on Monday. The EU sanctions, the 16th round approved from the invasion of Russia, point to Russia’s aluminum exports and its “shadow fleet” of ships supposedly used to avoid sanctions.

The United Kingdom sanctions tools and electronics used by the Russian Army and the North Korean Defense Minister, which is allegedly responsible for deploying more than 11,000 soldiers to Russia to help in the war.