Ukraine's allies meet with hopes of peace talks breakthrough

PARIS, August 20 ------ Ukraine’s allies were meeting to discuss the outcome of fast-moving talks to end Kyiv’s war with Moscow, after indications that Volodymyr Zelensky could sit down with Vladimir Putin for a peace summit. Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met United States President Donald Trump in Washington, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.

The war in Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, defying Trump’s push to end it. A face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since Russia’s brutal invasion nearly three-and-a-half years ago.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Washington for the talks on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, said France and the United Kingdom would hold a meeting on Tuesday with around 30 of Kyiv’s allies. The virtual meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing would “keep them up to date on what was decided,” Macron told French news channel LCI. “Right after that, we’ll start concrete work with the Americans.”

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are co-hosting the meeting, which will “discuss next steps” for Ukraine, a UK government spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP), as Kyiv seeks backing from allies to enforce any peace deal. Macron suggested that Geneva could host peace talks, but said it was “up to Ukraine” to decide whether to make concessions on territory, including parts of the eastern Donbas region still under its control. “Putin has rarely honored his commitments,” he added, calling the Russian leader a “predator, an ogre at our gates” — comments that underscored wider European wariness. Putin “has constantly been a force for destabilization. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power,” the French leader said.

Source: manilatimes.net