Macron Tells Figaro France, UK Working on Ukraine Truce Plan

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are working on a plan to reach a one-month truce in Ukraine.

The potential truce would include air and maritime operations as well as energy infrastructure, the French leader said in an interview with Le Figaro Sunday after attending a London crisis summit on Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

One British official disputed that such a truce had been agreed to as part of the plan. There hasn’t been any agreement on a timeline for a ceasefire, the official said. 

Soldiers would only be deployed on the ground in a second phase, Macron said. “There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks.”

Macron said in the Figaro interview that the areas he outlined for a possible truce would be verifiable if there were breaches, while it would be very difficult to do so along the eastern frontline. 

Britain, France and “one or two” other countries will work with Ukraine on a “plan to stop the fighting,” Starmer said earlier Sunday. 

Sunday’s emergency summit in London came after a week of frantic diplomacy following last week’s disastrous Oval Office clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy over the prospects of a ceasefire with Russia without American security guarantees.

Macron also told Le Figaro the EU should provide €200 billion ($208 billion) to boost defense capabilities in the face of a US pullback and threats from Russia.

The EU now needs to take over responsibility for its own security, he said. EU countries should set a target for defense investments at about 3%-3.5% of gross domestic product.

These issues will be the focus of an extraordinary European summit scheduled on Thursday, he said. The funds for defense should be done via “innovative financing,” he said, including through joint loans and other EU mechanisms. The EU is aiming for an emergency package of €20 billion ($21 billion) in military aid for Ukraine at the Brussels summit. 

(Adds comment from Macron that breaches on frontline wouldn’t be easily verifiable in fifth paragraph.)

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