PARIS: France and Britain are proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine \u201cin the air, at sea\u201d after crisis talks in London, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
\nIn an interview with France\u2019s Le Figaro newspaper, he also suggested that European countries should raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP to respond to Washington\u2019s shifting priorities.
\n\u201cFor three years, the Russians have spent 10 percent of their GDP on defense,\u201d he told the paper. \u201cSo we have to prepare for what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macron announced the proposal as he flew back to France from a summit in London on Sunday, during which European leaders closed ranks in support of Kyiv at a London summit, pledging to spend more on security and assemble a coalition to defend any truce in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Bringing together 18 allies, the talks came just two days after US President Donald Trump berated Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelensky at a live White House news conference.
\nAnd UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain, France \u201cand others\u201d would work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, which they would then put to Washington.<\/p>\n
The London meeting came at a delicate moment for war-battered Ukraine, which faces uncertain backing from Trump and is on the back foot against Russia\u2019s three-year invasion.
\nAnd Trump\u2019s row with Zelensky raised fresh questions over the US commitment to Ukraine and NATO.
\nStarmer said Europe found itself \u201cat a crossroads in history.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is not a moment for more talk \u2014 it\u2019s time to act. It\u2019s time to step up and lead and unite around a new plan for a just and enduring peace,\u201d the premier said.
\nWith no guarantee of US involvement, \u201cEurope must do the heavy lifting,\u201d Starmer said. Several countries were ready to help defend any truce, he added \u2014 without naming them.<\/p>\n
Zelensky was warmly embraced by many of the summit\u2019s attendees, including Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
\nOutside the UK leader\u2019s home, demonstrators gathered to show their support for Ukraine, some dressed in the country\u2019s blue and yellow national colors.
\nHis reception in London was in stark contrast to his reception at the White House two days earlier.
\nThere, Trump accused Zelensky of not being grateful enough for US aid and not being \u201cready\u201d for peace with Russia.
\nTheir argument, played out in front of the world\u2019s news cameras, raised fears that Trump wanted to force Kyiv into a peace deal giving Russian President Vladimir Putin what he wants.
\nStarmer insisted the United States was \u201cnot an unreliable ally.\u201d Any deal \u201cmust have strong US backing\u201d to succeed, he added.
\nBut after the leaders gathered on Sunday, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned the continent urgently had to rearm to \u201cprepare for the worst.\u201d
\nAnd Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for the United States and Europe to show Putin \u201cthat the West has no intention of capitulating before his blackmail and aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer and Macron have said they are prepared to deploy British and French troops to Ukraine to help preserve any truce.
\nBut Italy\u2019s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni \u2014 whose hard-right coalition government includes Moscow-friendly politicians \u2014 appeared to play down the possibility of Italy contributing soldiers.
\n\u201cI see this as a solution that risks being very complex and probably less decisive than others,\u201d she said.
\nRutte pointed to promises from more European countries to \u201cramp up defense spending,\u201d while insisting that Washington remained committed to the transatlantic alliance.
\nIn addition to attending the security summit, Zelensky also met King Charles III at his Sandringham estate.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s row in Washington marked a change from Zelensky\u2019s previous treatment there, where he was hailed as a Churchillian figure by the previous US administration.
\nTrump and his Vice President JD Vance angrily accused Zelensky of not being \u201cthankful\u201d and refusing to accept their proposed truce terms.
\nOn Sunday, top Washington Republicans doubled down on their criticism of the Ukrainian leader, suggesting he may have to step down, underscoring Trump\u2019s stunning shift in approach to the war with Russia.
\n\u201cWe need a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war,\u201d Mike Waltz, Trump\u2019s national security adviser told CNN.
\nRepublican Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, said: \u201cEither he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country.\u201d
\nTrump has cast himself as a mediator between Putin and Zelensky, sidelining Kyiv and Europe while pursuing rapprochement with Putin.
\nZelensky, though he did not apologize after the White House clash, indicated that he was still open to signing a deal on Ukraine\u2019s mineral wealth \u2014 coveted by Trump.
\nThe US president on Sunday shared a reposting on his Truth Social platform arguing that the mineral agreement itself would give Ukraine the security it was seeking and that \u201cin the end, Zelensky will have no choice but to concede.\u201d
\nMoscow meanwhile branded the Ukrainian leader\u2019s Washington trip a \u201ccomplete failure\u201d and said that Trump\u2019s changed stance \u201caligns\u201d with its vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS: France and Britain are proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine \u201cin the air, at sea\u201d after crisis talks in London, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. In an interview with France\u2019s Le Figaro newspaper, he also suggested that European countries should raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77856,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77841\/revisions\/77856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}