Paris/LONDON (Reuters) – During his first meeting with Donald Trump since his re-election, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky discussed the security guarantees he believes are essential to a negotiated end to the war with Russia, according to two sources close to the discussions held on Saturday in Paris.
The French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, was the host of this meeting which saw the Ukrainian leader attempt to establish a relationship with the future tenant of the White House, whose promise to put an early end to the conflict arouses Kyiv’s concern about a possible advantage given to Moscow’s demands.
Reuters spoke with five people informed about the content of this meeting organized at the Elysée before the ceremony to reopen the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral to worship, which burned down five years ago.
For 35 minutes, without advisors, the three men did not go into details but Donald Trump reiterated his wish to favor an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to quickly end the war, four sources reported.
Donald Trump behaved in a friendly, respectful and open manner and seemed to listen to his interlocutors, one of the sources said.
The US president-elect’s entourage did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the content of this article.
Neither Donald Trump nor his inner circle handling the issue have said how they plan to end the war, deepening the torment of Ukrainians worried about Russian advances in the eastern Donbass region and drone attacks on towns. far from the front lines.
“Some key points were raised during the meeting – for example, it was said that peace needs guarantees because a ceasefire alone is not enough, with Putin potentially breaking it, as he has already done, without appropriate guarantees,” said a source in the Ukrainian president’s office.
Asked how this statement was received, the source responded, referring to Donald Trump: “He is thinking about all the details.”
Kyiv has put pressure on the outgoing US administration of Joe Biden to invite it to join NATO, after having long highlighted its need for security guarantees to prevent any new Russian invasion attempt.
Volodimir Zelensky recently acknowledged that a diplomatic end to the war would save lives, muting his previous demands for a withdrawal of Moscow’s forces from all Ukrainian territories.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
People close to Donald Trump insisted on the importance for him of establishing personal relationships, essential to his diplomacy, adding that the American president would ultimately decide on the course of action to follow.
The images of the cordial meeting in Paris contrast with Donald Trump’s comments during his electoral campaign, which notably saw him qualify the Ukrainian president as “the greatest salesman on Earth” for having requested and obtained billions of dollars in military aid American.
If Emmanuel Macron and Volodimir Zelensky were on the same wavelength during the Paris meeting, they were careful not to give the impression of putting pressure on Donald Trump, an official said.
Over the course of his seven years in power, Emmanuel Macron has strived to develop personal relationships with leaders to fuel diplomatic efforts on this issue. Volodimir Zelensky, for his part, encouraged synergies while emphasizing the crucial importance of American support for Kyiv.
In the eyes of the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Putin only fears Donald Trump and perhaps China on the international stage, and any lasting peace requires a “really strong” American side.
Donald Trump regularly accuses European countries of not doing their part to ensure the continent’s security.
“Trump underlined his ambition to share responsibilities with Europeans,” said a French diplomatic source.
Emmanuel Macron used the meeting to argue that Europeans have done much to support Ukraine and were willing to share the security burden more equitably with the United States, two sources said.
The French president will report on this meeting to Polish leaders during a visit to Warsaw on Thursday.
According to another official, Emmanuel Macron and Volodimir Zelensky explained to Donald Trump that the Vladimir Putin of 2024 was not the same as that of 2017, when the re-elected president was in charge at the White House.
This same source adds that the fall of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and the setback inflicted on his Russian ally changes the balance of power against Moscow, which could change the situation in future peace efforts.
(Reporting by John Irish in Paris and Tom Balmforth in London, with Elizabeth Pineau in Paris and Gram Slattery in Washington, editing by Kate Entringer)
by John Irish and Tom Balmforth
