The willing people meet tomorrow in Paris For yet another coordination summit to find a possible square on what kind of security guarantees to give to Ukraine – including a possible peacekeeping mission – in view of the peace agreement, provided that the thrust impressed by Donald Trump brings results. Volodymyr Zelensky has already arrived in the French capital for a business dinner with Emmanuel Macron. And it collects two more billion military aid from France, between Mistral missiles, Amx wagons and ammunition. Kiev, however, plays the charge. “We do not need a simple presence to show that there is Europe,” said Igor Zhovkva, a high Ukrainian negotiator, on the eve of the summit. “It is not the quantity (of troops, ed) that matters … It is also their promptness to fight, their promptness to defend themselves, their promptness to be equipped and their readiness to understand that Ukraine is an inevitable part of European security,” he underlined. In short, it takes courage.
“Russia continues, day after day, to multiply the bombings, showing its will to want to continue the aggression”thundered Macron welcoming Zelensky. Then he announced another 2 billion euros of military aid. The last time, when the British premier Keir Starmer had summoned them into videoconference, about 25-30 leaders had connected. And more or less it will start from there. In addition to the heads of state and government there will be the president of the European Council Antonio Costa and the NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. Any peace agreement must foresee that “Russia is called to respond for the reprehensible actions” committed in three years of war, has warned Starmer by greeting the representatives of an organization that deals with the Ukrainian “kidnappings” attributed to Moscow, guests of the Chamber of Municipalities on the occasion of the question time.
The British premier then called the transfer of children “monstrous” and reiterated that London will make every effort to ensure “the return to Ukraine”. That is, reiterating one of Zelensky’s main requests. Rutte, speaking in Warsaw, praised Paris and London’s efforts “to help Ukraine maintain peace”. “But to keep it, peace, first must be reached,” noticed the secretary general, who then thanked Trump to “have broken the stall” with his initiative. “I am confident,” he remarked. Here, Kiev perhaps less, after the turbulent weeks just passed. The Ukrainian president therefore tries to understand what they want – and they can – really do the willing to help him achieve that “right” peace that, in words, everyone wants but who, in fact, is elusive, since Moscow does not seem to be back on the minimum set objectives. That is, keeping the territorial conquests, avoiding Kiev’s entry into NATO (nor, much less, forms of protection) and, perhaps, the exit of Zelensky’s scene thus hoping to place a figure closer to her at the presidential palace.
The 4 -level scenario at the interposition – the UN to monitor the truce, the Ukrainian armed forces armed to the teeth to dissuade Russia, the willing as the first warranty line and finally the American ‘backstop’ – could be a good base but there are still many questions to be dissolved, first above all if Vladimir Putin will ever accept the scheme and, immediately to wheel, if Donald Trump is willing to impose it. In fact, Paris and London do not seem inclined to tear, beyond the praised strategic autonomy of Europe. Rutte said it clearly. It is not time to “do it alone”, neither for Brussels nor for Washington. Also because the nuclear shield uses “is not replaceable”, who say Macron. And who has ears to understand.