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Military chiefs in Paris to discuss Ukraine security guarantees / Photo: © AFP/File
Military chiefs in Paris to discuss Ukraine security guarantees
Military chiefs from 30 European and NATO countries willing to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine after any negotiated truce with Russia are to meet in Paris on Tuesday.
More than three years since Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine, Europe is scrambling to boost its defences and break free from dependence on the United States.
The moves come as US President Donald Trump upends the transatlantic alliance and seeks rapprochement with Moscow.
Trump has renewed communication with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and criticised Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, raising fears in Kyiv and among European allies that the US leader may try to force Ukraine to accept a settlement favouring Russia.
Trump has also suspended military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.
Ukraine on Tuesday, in talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia, was to propose an aerial and naval ceasefire with Russia, according to a Ukrainian official.
The Paris meeting of military chiefs of staff from 30 European and NATO nations -- including the United Kingdom and Turkey -- will happen that same day, the French military has said.
President Emmanuel Macron is to address the meeting, which he has said is being held in tight coordination with NATO military command.
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been leading efforts to form a so-called "coalition of the willing" to enforce an eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.
Defence ministers from Europe's five main military powers -- France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Poland -- are then to meet in the French capital on Wednesday.
Those talks will centre on the "necessary rearmament of Europe" and military support to Ukraine, one of the French defence minister's aides has said.
Starmer will, in turn, host virtual talks on Saturday with leaders of the nations willing to help support the ceasefire, his office has said.
Macron last week said any European troops in Ukraine would only be deployed "once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected".
He has also said he would be ready to discuss extending France's nuclear deterrent to European partners.
Turkey, with NATO's second-largest army after the United States and a Black Sea shoreline, is looking to play a key role in Europe's security after Washington's pivot away from the region.
Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has thrown his support behind Zelensky's call for an aerial and naval truce.
O. Petrow--BTZ
