In a flurry of European diplomacy aimed at bolstering Western support for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump’s acrimonious meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine that would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks but would not include ground hostilities, French President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister said on Monday, the 3rd of March, according to Reuters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a meeting of Western leaders in London on Sunday to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to present to the US, but did not elaborate on it.
“Such a ceasefire on air, sea and energy infrastructure would allow us to determine whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith in committing to the ceasefire.
And then real peace talks could begin,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.
Under the Anglo-French proposal, European ground troops would be deployed in Ukraine only in a second phase, Macron said in an interview published in Le Figaro late on Sunday.
“There will be no European troops on Ukrainian territory in the coming weeks,” the newspaper quoted Macron as saying.
“The question is how we will use this time to try to achieve a ceasefire with negotiations that will last for several weeks and, once peace is signed, (the deployment of) troops,” Macron said.
The French President did not explain how air, sea and energy infrastructure could be monitored.
“In my view, this is only possible with NATO, or at least with NATO command and then Patriot systems, long-range missiles and aviation, which Ukraine does not have,” the European diplomat said. “And you have to negotiate with Russia so that it does not launch massive attacks.”
Zelenskyy said he was aware of Macron’s plan and everything discussed by European leaders on Sunday.
However, on Monday, UK Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard refused to confirm the ideas put forward by Macron and Barrot, saying, “It is not a plan that we recognise at the moment.”
“Of course, there are a number of different options being discussed privately between the UK, France and our allies at the moment. It would probably not be appropriate for me to comment on each individual option as they emerge at the moment,” Pollard told the BBC.
The Kremlin, which has rejected the idea of deploying Western troops in Ukraine, said on Monday that the clash between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office showed how difficult it would be to reach a deal on the conflict in Ukraine.
“The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace. They want the war to continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“It is very important that someone forces Zelenskyy himself to change his position,” Peskov said. “Someone has to make Zelenskyy want peace. If the Europeans can do that, they are honourable and praiseworthy.”
Peskov added that “the collective West has begun to lose some of its collectivism, and the fragmentation of the collective West has begun”.
President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 sending tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, sparking the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.