Talks on Ukraine continue after Paris 'progress'

PARIS

U.S. and Ukrainian officials continued talks over security guarantees for Kiev on Wednesday, both sides said, after meetings with Western allies yielded breakthroughs including a U.S.-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force to be deployed after any ceasefire with Russia.

Following the largest meeting yet of the so-called Coalition of the Willing in Paris, both European leaders and U.S. envoys hailed progress that hid tensions in recent days over assertive U.S. foreign policy in the Western hemisphere under President Donald Trump.

But the security guarantees for Ukraine would only come into force once a ceasefire is agreed to end the almost four-year war sparked by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion. Russian leader Vladimir Putin's intentions remain unclear.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said Ukrainian and American officials continued talks yesterday, with Zelensky thanking Washington "for its readiness to provide a backstop in all areas."

The "robust" guarantees would see the United States lead a truce monitoring mechanism with European participation, French President Emmanuel Macron said after Jan. 6's talks that gathered representatives of 35 countries, including 27 heads of state or government.

Macron, Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a declaration of intent that foresees Britain, France and other European allies deploying troops on Ukrainian territory after a ceasefire.

The allies also agreed to establish a U.S.-Ukraine-Coalition coordination cell in Paris.

But a promise that Washington would commit to "support" the European-led multinational force "in case of a new attack" by Russia, which was present in the draft statement, was not in the communique released on Jan. 6 evening.

Macron said that Paris could deploy "several thousand" French troops to Ukraine after the war.

Zelensky said the talks had "determined" which countries would take the lead on ensuring security and on reconstruction, as well as which forces were necessary and how they would be managed.

Macron said after the meeting that the moves represented "robust security guarantees for a solid and lasting peace," hailing an "operational convergence" among allies including the United States.

The security guarantees are "the key to ensuring that a peace agreement can never mean a Ukrainian surrender and that a peace agreement can never mean a new threat to Ukraine" from Russia, Macron said.

Against the background of tensions between Europe and the United States over Greenland and Venezuela, Witkoff said "a lot of progress" had been made.

Allies have "largely finished" agreeing security guarantees "so that the people of Ukraine know that when this ends, it ends forever," he said, flanked by President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Witkoff said that "land options" will be the most "critical issue" and "hopefully we will be able to come up with certain compromises with regard to that".

Zelensky expressed satisfaction over the outcome.

"These are not just words. There is concrete content," he said.