Macron's office reveals Coalition of the Willing's decisions for Ukraine
An Élysée Palace official has revealed that leaders of the Coalition of the Willing at their meeting in Paris on Tuesday 6 January will commit to supporting Ukraine across five areas, including the deployment of multinational armed forces on Ukrainian territory.
The unnamed source said the meeting will make it possible for commitments to be made across five points: a ceasefire and the monitoring of its observance, continued support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the format for deploying multinational forces on Ukrainian territory, commitments on the actions of allies in the event of renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine, and long-term defence cooperation.
The main idea of the leaders' meeting is to adopt decisions on possible actions within the Coalition of the Willing and then coordinate them further with the US side.
In particular, the leaders will discuss the ceasefire terms that are not security guarantees: how the line of demarcation will be monitored, controlled and inspected.
The Élysée Palace official stressed that Western troops will not be deployed on the line of demarcation "because we are talking about a 1,400 km line, and the presence of soldiers on the line makes no sense either tactically or strategically".
"It is very important that we have all technical means to monitor the situation on the ground: drones, satellites and so on. But above all, we – Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians – should clearly understand what we must do in the event of a ceasefire violation," the representative of French President Emmanuel Macron's administration stressed.
"In addition to this, there are two other very important things in the security guarantees. The first is continued support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the long term to prevent a future attack. The second is the deployment of multinational forces to support Ukraine in the air, at sea and on land, as well as the training and rebuilding of Ukrainian forces," he said.
A meeting of leaders of Coalition of the Willing member states will take place in Paris on 6 January and is expected to finalise security guarantees for Ukraine from this coalition.
Steve Witkoff, an advisor to US President Donald Trump and his special envoy, will arrive in France for the meeting on the US side. In addition, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and who is also a member of the negotiating group within the peace process, will join the event.
The European Commission has reiterated that the main security guarantee for Kyiv from the EU as a union is the prospect of Ukraine's accession to the EU.