OAN Staff Blake Wolf
8:46 AM – Thursday, September 4, 2025
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff convened with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Paris as Kyiv seeks long-term American security guarantees in any potential peace deal with Russia.
The Paris meeting on Thursday included a “coalition of the willing,” which included major European nations, as well as Australia, Canada, and Japan.
The coalition, which the U.S. is not part of, has discussed stationing European troops in Ukraine as part of a peace agreement to serve as a deterrent against a future Russian invasion.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the coalition will endorse plans for Ukrainian security guarantees, stating: “We are ready, us Europeans, to provide security guarantees to Ukraine for when there is a signed peace.”
“It will now be endorsed politically, and it allows us to do so in a solid way, and we will come back to you tomorrow after these meetings and discussions, to say that we are ready for a robust, lasting peace for Ukraine and for the Europeans,” Macron added.
It is currently unclear if the European plan will move forward without U.S. involvement, as multiple European governments have indicated that any deployment of European troops would hinge on the United States providing security guarantees as well to provide a “backstop.”
Two unnamed European officials speaking with Reuters stated that the goal of Europe pledging military support to Ukraine would send a message to President Donald Trump, while highlighting the stall in peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv since Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska last month.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova made it clear that Moscow will not accept Western military intervention in Ukraine as part of any peace deal, which is what Russia argues the entire war is about.
“Russia does not intend to discuss unacceptable foreign intervention in Ukraine in any form whatsoever,” Zakharova stated on Thursday. “Western war instigators view Ukraine as a testing ground for their military developments.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte responded, arguing that Russia’s views on European troops in Ukraine are irrelevant as it is a sovereign country, despite Kyiv needing to negotiate with Moscow to end the current conflict.
“Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It’s a sovereign country. Russia has nothing to do with this,” Rutte stated on Thursday. “I think we have to stop making Putin too powerful.”
After the meeting, Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, stated that the security guarantees “must be strong and effective in the air, at sea, on land, and in cyberspace.”
The European leaders present were reportedly set to speak with President Trump over the phone after the meeting concluded.
Correction: Title changed to “Special envoy Witkoff convenes with Zelensky and EU leaders in Paris to discuss Ukrainian security guarantees”
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