European leaders were due to meet in Paris on Monday (Feb 17) to address Washington’s shock policy shift on the war in Ukraine, as Britain declared itself ready to dispatch peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the conflict.
The hastily convened informal summit of European leaders set to start at 4pm local time comes after Trump said he could meet Putin “very soon”.
Hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, the meeting is to gather the heads of government of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the heads of the European Council, the European Commission and NATO.
The war in Ukraine is days short of its third anniversary on Feb 24.
Britain’s Keir Starmer said Sunday that he was willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary” in response to what he called “a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent”.
Trump has said he believes Putin genuinely wants to stop fighting in Ukraine, while his administration has warned its NATO allies Europe will no longer be its top security priority.
US defence chief Pete Hegseth also appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory lost since 2014.
The meeting will address “the situation in Ukraine” and “security in Europe”, the French presidency said.
“Because of the acceleration of the Ukrainian issue, and as a result of what US leaders are saying, there is a need for Europeans to do more, better and in a coherent way, for our collective security,” an adviser in Macron’s office said.
The Kremlin has pushed for negotiations between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia – expected in the coming days – to discuss not just the Ukraine conflict but also broader European security.
