Europe live: Ukraine will not accept US-Russia talks outcome if it is not involved, says Zelenskyy

View from the Élysée ahead of Paris talks

Jon Henley

in Paris

Élysée officials have said the key objective of today’s mini-summit is to seek agreement on what concrete actions European governments should and can take, including making progress on the fraught question of how to fund a major increase in defence spending.

“We consider that, in view of the acceleration of the Ukraine situation and in view, also, of what US leaders have said, there is a necessity for the Europeans to do more, better, and in a coherent manner, for our collective security,” an adviser said.

The meeting also aims to reassure Kyiv that as the US and Russia begin peace talks this week that could result in a settlement Ukraine could not sign up to, Europeans – including the UK – would stand by their political, financial and military commitments.

Emmanuel Macron is expected to tell the leaders of the UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, as well as Nato chief Mark Rutte and top EU officials Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, that the US stance can be an opportunity.

Trump’s peace initiative could hasten the end of the war, the Elysée adviser told French media, but it was essential that the agreement was acceptable to Ukraine and to Europe, whose security was also at stake.

In any event, Macron is thought likely to urge leaders not to rise to the US bait and to avoid provocative or confrontational language. Instead, Europe should welcome Washington’s proposals – while taking meaningful steps of its own.

We’re also now hearing directly from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commenting on the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.

In comments reported by the Associated Press and Reuters, he said Ukraine won’t take part in US-Russia talks this week on ending the war and won’t accept the outcome of the talks if Ukraine doesn’t take part.

Speaking to journalists on a conference call from the United Arab Emirates, Zelenskyy said his government had not been invited to Tuesday’s planned talks in Saudi Arabia.

He said they would “yield no results,” given the absence of any Ukrainian officials.

“Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise … any agreements about us without us,” he said.

The Ukrainian president also said that “for the first time” he noted some interest from China over any settlement of Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy also pushed back on the floated idea of a minerals agreement with the US, saying that Ukraine cannot be just seen as a “simple supplier of raw materials,” and that any deal would need to include “at least somehow” additional security guarantees.

He said that he expected to get more clarity on any future meeting with Trump only after US envoy Keith Kellogg visited Ukraine.

Poland will not send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said today, ahead of European leaders’ meeting in Paris on the continent’s response to potential peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Tusk said the issue of Polish support was “settled,” as Warsaw was ready to continue its logistical, financial, humanitarian and military support for Ukraine, but not to deploy Polish troops inside Ukraine.

“We will be supporting, through logistics and political support, other countries willing to make such [hard security] guarantees,” he said.

Speaking to reporters before flying to Paris, Tusk also urged European leaders to “massively” increase spending on defence, noting that Poland’s 4.7% of GDP, way above Nato target, is “an exception, not a rule” and “this needs to change”.

He signalled his support for US comments on spending, saying that “there is no point getting offended or irritated” about their warnings on spend, as Europe “has to show that we are capable of much more serious investment in our own security.”

He also warned against trying to build any European defence formats outside Nato, despite “what some people say, sometimes in brutal words, … but there is no reason for allies, even if they disagree [on some topics], to not find an agreement on the most important issues.”

In what seemed like a pointed swipe at the UK and the US, the signatories of the 1993 Budapest agreement which was meant to guarantee Ukraine’s security after it gave up nuclear arsenal, he also said that leaders of the countries considering making such promises now must be ready to follow through with actions.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has been speaking to the media this morning offering the Kremlin’s view on negotiations with the US over Ukraine.

Lavrov is expected to be part of the talks with the US in Riyadh on Tuesday, alongside Putin’s diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov.

He said “Putin and Trump agreed on the necessity of leaving behind absolutely abnormal relations.”

He also addressed the issue of any potential European involvement in the peace talks:

I don’t know what they would do at the negotiating table… if they are going to sit at the negotiating table with the aim of continuing war, then why invite them there?

Lavrov also said there could be “no thought of” Russian territorial concessions to Ukraine at future peace talks, Reuters reported.

Pro-Russian hackers hit Italian transport system, banks after threats of ‘consequences’ over president’s criticism of Russia

Lorenzo Tondo

in Rome

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said on Monday that Italian president Sergio Mattarella’s comments at the University of Marseilles earlier this month (Europe Live on 6 Feb) comparing Moscow to Nazi Germany over its invasion of Ukraine will not go “without consequences”.

“During a lecture at an educational institution, he said he believed that Russia could be equated with the Third Reich,” Russian news agency Ria Novosti quoted Zakharova as saying on Russian state TV.

“This cannot, and will never, be left without consequences”, she added.

Shortly after Zakharova’s comments, the pro-Russian hacker group “NoName57” attacked the telematic system of transportation and several Italian banks, citing how Mattarella is “Anti-Russian.”

Zakharova described Mattarella’s speech as “blasphemous inventions”.

Premier Giorgia Meloni said the attacks against Mattarella “offend the whole nation, which the head of state represents.

“I express my full solidarity, as well as that of the entire Government, to President Mattarella, who has always firmly supported the condemnation of the aggression perpetrated against Ukraine”, the prime minister said in a statement.

We are just getting a line from the Agence Frence-Presse that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, just a day after US-Russia talks are due to start there…

Zelenskyy spoke briefly about the trip last week, even if without giving dates, and insisted that he had no plans to meet Russian or US officials there.

One to watch.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian delegation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, the US state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed.

Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski put forward one of the most creative proposals on how to get to US president Donald Trump, influence his position on peace talks with Russia and make him side with European allies on the need of a just and lasting peace with appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine.

Playing off Trump’s well-known desire to get praise and public recognition, he suggested that Europeans could use the promise of a Nobel peace prize to get him on side.

“I would tell him that we, Europeans, control the Nobel peace prize. If you want to earn it, the peace has to be fair,” he told the Munich Security Conference over the weekend.

Here’s the clip.

in Madrid

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, says today’s meeting of European leaders in Paris has three main objectives.

In an interview this morning with the Onda Cero radio station, Albares said:

“It’s about showing European unity at such a crucial moment for European security.

Second, it’s about what we Europeans should do going forward to guarantee that there’s a just and lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.

Third, it’s about analysing and deciding what we Europeans need in order to be able to achieve that just peace and to keep helping Ukraine win peace; it’s also about European security and the protection of our citizens.”

Albares said he didn’t think anyone would be talking about sending troops to Ukraine as “peace is still very far away”.

He also rejected suggestions that the meeting was a direct response to what had been said in Munich last week, saying:

There’s a new [US] administration that’s putting forward new ideas on Ukraine and, at the same time, we’re about to enter the fourth year of war and unjustified aggression. It’s very legitimate that, faced with this new panorama, Europeans should be meeting and reflecting on taking a series of decisions because all this affects our security and our European values.

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson told Reuters that deploying Swedish troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force is “absolutely a possibility.”

His comments build on earlier declaration from Swedish foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenegard (9:40).

“We will take part in those discussions and of course that is absolutely a possibility,” he said on the sidelines of a military exercise in Sweden’s capital,” Kristersson said.

“There needs to be a very clear mandate for those forces and I don’t think we can see that until we have come further in those negotiations. But Sweden, we are normally a part of strengthening security in our part of the world, so I foresee us to be a part of that this time as well,” he told Reuters.

Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he spoke with UK counterpart Keir Starmer on Monday, and they expressed “a clear expectation that Ukraine must have a seat at the table” during any peace talks with Russia.

The pair also stressed that Europe also “must participate” in the negotiations.

“Norway and the UK are further developing close security policy cooperation, as we agreed in December,” he added.

Italian singer claims he was asked to perform in Russia to mark end of Ukraine war

Lorenzo Tondo

in Rome

The popular Italian singer Albano Carrisi, better known by his stage name Al Bano, has said that he has been invited to perform in a concert between the end of August and the beginning of September on Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the end of the war in Ukraine.

In an interview with Italy’s state radio broadcaster Radio Rai 1, Al Bano—one of the most well-known Italian singers in Russia, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions—said that he was contacted a few days ago by his Moscow-based agent, who told him to prepare to perform in a major concert to celebrate the end of the war, which is nearing its third year.

“‘The other day I received an SMS from the Russian agent,’” said Al Bano. “‘It’s the same manager who introduced me to Putin and his entire staff. He told me, “Al Bano, get ready, because between the end of August and, at the latest, the beginning of September, we will hold the concert on Red Square—the famous concert for peace. And it will happen. I am absolutely convinced it will happen.”

Asked if he was ready to perform, he replied: “As always.”

Al Bano did not name the manager and the Guardian could not independently verify the report.

Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó has welcomed the restart of the high level talks between Russia and the US, criticising “pro-war” European leaders who he said were trying to prevent a peace deal for Ukraine.

Szijjártó spoke at a press conference with his counterpart in Kazakhstan, streamed on his Facebook and reported by Reuters.

Hungary has long been a vocal critic of the European response to the war, and repeatedly called for the removal of sanctions against Moscow.

US state secretary Marco Rubio has now arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he will take part with talks with Russia, expected to start on Tuesday. He is expected to be joined by US national security advisor Michael Waltz and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

He is continuing his first visit to the Middle East since taking office last month; he flew into Riyadh from Israel, where he met with the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

US president Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will visit Warsaw on Tuesday where he will meet with Polish president Andrzej Duda to discuss the peace talks about Ukraine, a senior Polish administration official said.

Duda’s most senior foreign policy aide, Wojciech Kolarski, told RMF24 radio that the pair would meet on Tuesday afternoon at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw at the initiative of the US side.

He declined to say if Poland would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine.

Swedish foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told public radio Sveriges Radio that the country would not rule out sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine if necessary.

“We must first now negotiate a fair and sustainable peace that respects international law… When we have such a peace in place, it will need to be maintained and for that our government is not ruling out anything,” she said.

Keir Starmer has said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia – acknowledging it could put UK forces “in harm’s way” if Vladimir Putin launches another attack.

It is understood to be the first time the prime minister has explicitly stated he is considering deploying British peacekeepers to Ukraine. The comments came just before emergency talks with European leaders in Paris on Monday.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph (£), he said the UK was “ready to play a leading role” in Ukraine’s defence and security, including the commitment of £3bn a year until 2030. Starmer said that along with military aid, “it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary”.

“I do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way,” Starmer said.

“But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.

The Paris meeting will aim to outline a European action plan after days of chaotic briefing by the Trump administration. The summit will also need to decide how to respond to a request by the US to spell out whether leaders are prepared to commit troops to a stabilisation force in the event of a ceasefire.

Confirming the Paris meeting, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio on Sunday: “The president will bring together the main European countries tomorrow for discussions on European security.” He said there was a wind of unity blowing through.

It will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia. The US has said there must be devastating consequences for any side that breaches a ceasefire agreement, an element missing from previous Ukraine ceasefires since 2014.

More:

Morning opening: Make Europe Relevant Again

Jakub Krupa

After a brutal awakening about the state of the transatlantic alliance over the weekend, key European leaders are meeting in Paris today to figure out what to do next.

They will not be necessarily looking how to Make Europe Great Again, as JD Vance claims he would have want them to, but how to Make Europe Relevant Again in the looming talks about Ukraine’s future.

Hastily convened by French president Emmanuel Macron, the talks will see key regional leaders try to path a way forward outside the formal structures of the European Union, and without the risk of being sabotaged by the likes of Viktor Orbán.

Macron is expected to be joined by Germany’s Scholz, Italy’s Meloni, Poland’s Tusk, Denmark’s Frederiksen (representing the Nordic-Baltic Eight), Spain’s Sanchez, the Netherlands’ Schoof and EU leaders in Commission president von der Leyen and Council president Costa.

The meeting will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia.

But there is no hiding from the fact that the Paris summit will be taking place just as US officials will be prepping to meet with Russian counterparts in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss some of the issues at hand – without any Ukrainians or Europeans attending.

If Europe wants to put itself back in this conversation, there is not much time left to do this before it is too late, with potentially devastating consequences for the security order that kept us safe since 1945.

Pas de pression, Paris.

It’s Monday, 17 February 2024, and this is Europe Live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.