PARIS (AP) — Paris is hosting a series of talks Thursday about Ukraine and its security, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, French President Emmanuel Macron and top Ukrainian officials.
Rubio arrived in Paris on Thursday morning. Rubio and Witkoff will have “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
The meetings come as concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia as he seeks to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine and his administration’s other moves, from tariffs on some of its closest partners to rhetoric about NATO and Greenland.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also arrived in Paris on Thursday to take part in the talks.
Yermak described them as “a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings with representatives of the states of the coalition of the willing that are able to guarantee security.″ The Ukrainian delegation is also to meet with U.S. officials, Yermak said.
Around 30 countries led by Britain and France have been discussing a possible coalition to police any future peace agreement with Russia. The success of the coalition’s operation hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military assistance, but the Trump administration has made no public commitment to provide support.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is also taking part in the Ukraine discussions, along with the German government’s foreign policy adviser and the Foreign Ministry’s political director.
Macron will hold separate meetings with Rubio and Witkoff. Macron also plans to discuss the impact of Trump’s tariff policies and the conflicts in the Mideast, ″in a logic of de-escalation in the region,″ Macron’s office said.
In Ukraine, a massive drone attack hit the city of Dnipro on Wednesday night, killing three people including a child, the regional leader said. Ukrainian government officials and military analysts have said that Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Kyiv and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks.
Rubio and Witkoff have helped lead U.S. efforts to seek peace more than three years after Russia launched the war. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia, and Witkoff met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.
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