Macron tells about results of emergency summit in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken about his impressions of the emergency summit in Paris, saying that he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy afterwards.

Macron noted that after a meeting with European leaders and the EU leadership, which he convened in Paris, he had separate conversations with Trump and 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. Otherwise, there is a risk that this ceasefire will end up like the Minsk agreements.

We will work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians. This is the key," Macron said on X (Twitter).

He continued that the leaders are convinced that Europe needs to invest more in its defence and increase its competitiveness to meet the needs of the present and the future.

"Work will continue based on the European Commission’s proposals, both in supporting Ukraine and in developing and investing in our defence. This agenda, defined in 2022 at the Versailles Summit, must simply be carried out. Decisions, actions, coherence. Quickly," Macron said.

Earlier, Zelenskyy mentioned a "long conversation" with Macron after the leaders met in Paris.

The emergency summit on 17 February was attended by the leaders of the largest EU states and the UK – eight countries in total, as well as the NATO secretary general and the EU leadership. Some capitals expressed disappointment that they were not invited.

Macron initiated the meeting after Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, said that the United States does not see Europe at the negotiating table to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The US and Russian delegations are due to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.