Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (from left), Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmerand NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte meet at 10 Downing Street in London on October 10, 2024. Photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe /pool/EPA_ESE
Feb. 16 (UPI) — European leaders are planning an emergency summit in Paris on Monday amid concerns the continent is being shut out in plans to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.
This comes amid reports that the United States and Russia are planning to meet in Saudi Arabia on a peace agreement.
A Ukraine official told CNN Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “not informed” about U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with senior Russian officials.
On Saturday, Rubio also held a phone call with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Elysee Palace said French President Emmanuel Macron would host an “informal” meeting with “the heads of government of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission and the Secretary General of NATO.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday he said: “This is a once in a generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia.
“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia,” he said in the statement.
“The UK will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together. We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”
Starmer plans to meet with Trump at the White House at the end of this month.
Then European leaders are scheduled to appear with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced negotiations would begin “immediately” on ending the conflict after a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin but Europe would be excluded. Trump later spoke with Zelensky.
“A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin,” Zelensky said. “Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot.”
In a post on X Sunday, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said Europe stands strongly united in supporting Ukraine and strengthening our own defence. We will soon come up with new initiatives to take this forward.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had gathered intelligence showing that Russia was preparing training exercises with possibly 150,000 troops — mainly on the soil of Belarus, a Kremlin ally. That would be pretext for attacks on NATO countries such as Lithuania and Poland, perhaps even by this summer.
He told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday, that “we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States.”
On Saturday, Zelensky championed the idea of creating a European military force to ensure the rest of the world does not treat it like a “pushover.”
“I really believe that the time has come that the armed forces of Europe must be created,” Zelensky said during the Munich Security Conference, while also touching on the possibility of American military support in Europe ending.
JD Vance also was critical of Europe during that summit.
He told them that the biggest threat to their security was “from within,” rather than China or Russia. He noted ythe suppression of free speech and refusal to work with hard-right parties in government.
Vance and Zelensky met Friday in Munich.
Keith Kellogg, special envoy for Ukraine, during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, said previous negotiations had failed because too many parties had been involved.
Kellogg said he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen,” noting that previous peace talks failed was because of the involvement of too many countries.
He said Russia will have to make concessions to end the war, including territorial matters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, said it was unrealistic that Kyiv should join NATO.
A day later, Hegseth hedged on those comments, saying “everything is on the table” in negotiations between the two countries. And Vice President JD Vance also warned Thursday the U.S. could hit Russia with economic and military “tools of leverage” if Moscow doesn’t negotiate in good faith.
In 2015, talks brokered by France and Germany, sought to end fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. A cease-fire deal between Ukraine and Russia failed.
Waltz, who is Trump’s national security adviser, said long-term military security guarantees for Ukraine need to be “European-led.”
On Fox News, he said European allies have been engaged in conversations on the conflict, and spoke with Macron last week.
Waltz said a permanent end to the war “can’t be ended on the battlefield,”
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