French President Emmanuel Macron receives his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, and American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Tuesday, before a new summit of the “Coalition of the Willing” for Ukraine, which will bring together 35 countries. Objective: for the Americans and Europeans to demonstrate their “convergence” on security guarantees.
Published on: 06/01/2026 - 04:19 Modified on: 06/01/2026 - 14:00
To display this YouTube content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.
An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the loading of the video player. To be able to watch this content, you must disable or uninstall it.
European countries allied with Ukraine and American emissaries meet on Tuesday, January 6, in Paris for a summit aimed at displaying their "convergence" on the security guarantees to be provided to kyiv and specifying the contours of a "multinational force" in the event of a ceasefire agreement with Moscow.
“These discussions must provide more protection and strength for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said on the X network upon his arrival at midday at the Elysée in Paris. He reiterated his demand for “measures that can guarantee real security for our people.”
The entourage of French President Emmanuel Macron presents this new meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” as the culmination of the efforts he began to deploy about a year ago, after the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House, to prevent the United States from “letting go of Ukraine”.
“We have succeeded in this reconvergence exercise between Ukraine, Europe and America,” one of his advisers told the press on Monday.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: in 2025, the Russian army signs its strongest advance in three years
The Europeans have ostensibly chosen not to strongly condemn the American president's coup in Venezuela, anxious to spare him at a time when political negotiations have intensified again since November, under the leadership of Washington, with a view to an agreement with Russia to end nearly four years of war.
In parallel with this diplomatic balancing act to which they are subjecting themselves, several countries of the Old Continent including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy published on Tuesday a joint declaration of support for Greenland and Denmark in the face of the demands of the American president.
Emmanuel Macron met over breakfast with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Élysée presidential palace. He then received his Ukrainian counterpart for a tête-à-tête, followed by a lunch extended to the American envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.
A “multinational force for Ukraine”
Subsequently, the summit will bring together 35 countries, including 27 represented by heads of state or government, such as the Italian Giorgia Meloni. The leaders of NATO and the European Union are also expected.
A press conference is planned for the end of the day, bringing together Presidents Macron and Zelensky, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
The United States is not a full member of this coalition set up in March by France and the United Kingdom to provide “security guarantees” to Ukraine as part of a possible ceasefire. It is on this point that the “convergence” praised by Paris relates.
On Tuesday, leaders will make “concrete commitments”, promised Emmanuel Macron. They must define their common vision of the "modalities of a future ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia, the way in which it can be "verified" by "technical means, drones, satellites" rather than by a land military deployment, but also on their response in the event of a violation, explained the French presidency.
Read alsoDatchas, luxury residences and secret palaces: Putin's real estate empire
Another point on the agenda, according to the same source: the "operational modalities" of the "deployment of a multinational force" to "reassure Ukraine in the air, on the sea and on land" in the face of the threat of a new Russian attack after a possible peace agreement.
“What military secrecy allows us to say”
If the leaders could record the contributions of the different countries of the coalition to this military mission, they will only reveal "what military secrecy allows us to say", warned Emmanuel Macron's advisor. We should therefore not expect to know the numbers of this force or the contributions of states ready to participate, such as France and the United Kingdom.
On the French side, the Head of State could say more on Thursday when he receives the political class to take stock.
Convergence seems less complete with regard to the peace negotiations led by the United States in parallel, with Ukraine and Russia. A meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump at the end of December and telephone conversations between the American president and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin did not make it possible to move forward on the territorial concessions demanded by Moscow and the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Also read: Ukraine: three questions on the Zaporizhzhia power plant, a crucial point in the peace negotiations
Since then, negotiations have continued at the level of negotiators, particularly Ukrainian, European and American. And the subject will be raised again in Paris. The Kremlin has made known its intention to "harden" its position after accusing Ukraine of having wanted to target a residence of Vladimir Putin with drones, which kyiv denies. The Russian head of state has repeated in recent weeks that Russia will achieve its objectives in Ukraine through negotiations or through arms.
Russian strikes hit a clinic in kyiv on Monday, killing two people. On the ground, Moscow continued its advance, claiming the capture of the town of Grabovské, in northeastern Ukraine.
With AFP
Keywords associated with the article
The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.
