Europe, sidelined by U.S. and Russia, seeks influence in Ukraine talks

MUNICH - As the Trump administration moves toward direct talks with Russian officials over the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has called European leaders to an emergency meeting to discuss how they might influence the talks.

Leaders will meet in Paris on Monday as they scramble for a role in negotiations that could determine the future of Ukraine and of Europe’s security landscape - and are advancing quickly without both of them. President Donald Trump’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and U.S. plans to hold talks with Russian officials this week, have fueled European concerns that their defense interests will be sidelined.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “ready and willing” to deploy British troops to Ukraine as part of a peace deal, he said Sunday. His comments in the Telegraph on Sunday evening will put pressure on other European leaders to commit their own forces.

Ukraine’s European backers have been deliberating for months over whether to send troops in the event of a deal as they adjusted to Trump’s return and sought to lay the foundations for possible talks. The discussions, driven by France, have been spurred by the Trump’s administration’s recent moves to kick-start negotiations.

The leaders of Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, senior E.U. officials and NATO chief Mark Rutte are expected to attend Macron’s meeting. They’ll try to build consensus around plans to support Ukraine with postwar aid and security guarantees, including a possible deployment of European troops, according to officials who were briefed on the meeting, and to reinforce their negotiating leverage. They’ll also deliberate on how to protect European defense interests as the Trump team makes clear the transatlantic relationship is changing, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomatic talks.

“The consultations” will center on Ukraine and “the challenges of security in Europe,” Macron’s office said Sunday.

U.S. officials including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Michael Waltz were set to leave for Saudi Arabia on Sunday night for meetings “at the direction of the president,” Witkoff told Fox News earlier Sunday. He said he hopes to make “really good progress” on Russia and Ukraine.

Macron said Sunday that he spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about “the role Saudi Arabia could play in fostering a solid and lasting peace [in Ukraine], with Europeans at the center of the process.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the meeting should not be “dramatized.” European officials have been regularly meeting on plans for Ukraine.

“A wind of unity is blowing over Europe,” he told France Inter radio on Sunday. “We must keep our cool and not let ourselves be carried away, intimidated by the statements we hear left and right.”

“Only Ukrainians could decide to stop fighting,” he said, and Ukrainians would not stop until “they are sure the peace proposed to them will be durable.”

“Who will provide the guarantees? It will be the Europeans,” he said. The role of the United States, he said, was to bring Putin to the negotiating table.

While European officials seek greater involvement, Trump’s Ukraine envoy said there would be no seat at the table for them.

“I’m [from] a school of realism,” Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “I think that’s not going to happen.” He sought to assuage European concerns by saying this didn’t mean their positions would not be taken into account.

Zelensky said Saturday that he had not been invited to the U.S. talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “The voice of Europe has to sound at the same level” as the United States, Zelensky told reporters on Saturday. He called the United States and Europe “big strategic partners.”

“We need in any case, in any diplomacy, any future … we have to go shoulder to shoulder with Europeans,” he said. A “representation of Europe” is needed at “any table of negotiations.”

Witkoff was asked by Fox News why Ukraine wasn’t invited to the talks. “I think Ukraine is part of the talks,” he said. Trump called with Zelensky recently, he said, and U.S. and Ukrainian officials met at the Munich Security Conference. “I don’t think this is about excluding anybody,” Witkoff said.

Kyiv has rejected an initial Trump administration proposal in which Ukraine would give the United States access to half of its mineral resources, The Washington Post reported. Ukrainian officials are working on a counterproposal that would increase U.S. access to Ukraine’s resources but would explicitly bolster U.S. guarantees for Kyiv, according to seven people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the sensitive issue.