British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are proposing a month-long ceasefire in Ukraine as a step towards a possible peace deal. Their peace plan calls for a “ceasefire in the air, at sea and in the energy infrastructure zone” as the first de-escalation measure. The plan was announced by Emmanuel Macron to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The ceasefire proposed by Macron and Starmer would apparently not affect ground fighting on the front in eastern Ukraine. According to Macron, the advantage of such a concept is that violations of such a limited ceasefire would be easier to verify. The front in eastern Ukraine is extremely long – “the equivalent of the Paris-Budapest road,” the French president said, writes A2 CNN.
Such a ceasefire should create space for a diplomatic solution and lay the groundwork for negotiations. They want peace in Ukraine, but not at any price, Macron warned. He stressed that security guarantees are essential.
In the interview, Macron makes it clear that the plan proposed at the Ukraine summit in London to deploy European troops on Ukrainian soil will only be considered after negotiations have succeeded and there is a sustainable ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. “There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks,” Macron stressed.
“The question is how do we use this time to reach a viable ceasefire, with negotiations that will last several weeks and then, once peace is signed, a deployment of troops,” Macron added. “We want peace,” but not “at any price, without guarantees.” The United States under President Donald Trump has so far refused to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, which fears it will be attacked again by Russia even after peace.
For her part, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is announcing a plan to “rearm Europe.” She said in London that she would present the plan to strengthen European security at an EU summit in Brussels next week. “We all understand that after a long period of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to increase defense spending for a sustained period. This is about the security of the European Union,” she said. (A2 Televizion)
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