Macron says Ukraine peace must come with ‘strong and credible security guarantees’

PARIS, Feb 18 – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that peace in Ukraine “must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees” following a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” Macron said on the social media platform X.

“Otherwise, there is a risk that this ceasefire will end up like the Minsk agreements,” he added, referring to the pacts that sought to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

The call with Zelensky came after Macron hosted an emergency meeting in Paris with European leaders to discuss their response to the dramatic shift in U.S. policy on Ukraine under President Donald Trump.

European leaders fear that Trump wants to negotiate peace with Russia in talks that would exclude Kyiv, as well as the European Union.

Zelensky said in his own social media post that Macron had briefed him on the discussions with European leaders and that they shared a “common vision” for achieving peace.

“We share a common vision: security guarantees must be robust and reliable,” he said on X.

“Any other decision without such guarantees—such as a fragile ceasefire—would only serve as another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European nations.”

RSS / Agence France-Presse