35 leaders present security proposal for Ukraine, says Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron (photo: Getty Images)
At present, there is a political and military proposal to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, coming from 35 leaders of the Coalition of the Willing, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference after the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris.
"From the very beginning we stated that negotiations are possible only on the condition of providing very strong security guarantees to Ukrainians, and if this is a condition for a ceasefire, a peace agreement, or a truce. And I want to say this here today, after the commitments made in Washington in mid-August by the Europeans present, and then the involvement of the entire Coalition of the Willing," said Macron.
The President of France noted that the chiefs of staff and defense ministers of the countries of the Coalition of the Willing carried out extremely intensive work in close coordination with the United States and NATO.
"And I can tell you today that we are ready. This Coalition of the Willing, which is a coalition for peace, has today effectively presented and confirmed with military-political commitments the contribution of 35 members to ensuring these guarantees of peace and security in Ukraine," he added.
The first goal, according to Macron, is to ensure that during negotiations no restrictions are imposed on the size or combat capability of the Ukrainian army.
"This is what we stand for and will defend until the end. That is why we have given ourselves the means to rebuild the Ukrainian army so that it can not only repel any new attack, but also deter Russia from any further aggression," he stressed.
The French President noted that this is the first pillar of security guarantees — the most important and essential.
"That is why we collected contributions from all countries. The second element of these guarantees of peace and security is what we call security forces," Macron added.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
On August 18 a meeting took place at the White House between US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European leaders. The allies discussed security guarantees for Ukraine.
After the meeting at the White House, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the details of the guarantees were planned to be agreed upon within 10 days. However, later the timeline was extended by another week.
US President Donald Trump publicly assured that Europe would provide "significant" guarantees, and the United States would stand in support of these commitments.
At the same time, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposed to European leaders a plan for providing security guarantees to Ukraine in the format of collective assistance, which does not envisage NATO membership.
Also recently, Zelenskyy outlined three key blocks of security guarantees for Ukraine. These concern the preservation of the army, cooperation with NATO countries, and sanctions against Russia.
He also emphasized that Ukraine needs legally enshrined security guarantees from key European countries and the United States of America, and not another Budapest Memorandum.
Today, September 4, leaders of a number of European countries met in Paris to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.
Before the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the preparation of security guarantees for Ukraine had been completed. The contributions of the allies were documented and confirmed at the level of defense ministers.
