French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday the consensus among European countries was that they should be prepared for a possible attack by Russia in the coming years, and that more efforts are needed to help Ukraine financially and militarily.
Some 20 European leaders gathered in Paris on Monday to send Vladimir Putin a message of European resolve on Ukraine and counter the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is bound to win a war now in its third year.
“I have noted that more or less all the countries represented around this table have said… that the common consensus was that we should be ready in a few years’ time, for Russia to attack these countries,” Macron said in opening remarks later adding that the meeting was meant to see how to “do more in terms of military support and budget support” for the beleaguered Ukraine.
Macron has invited his European counterparts to the Élysée Palace for a hastily arranged meeting to discuss how to ramp up ammunition supplies to Ukraine amid what his advisers say is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks.
“We want to send Putin a very clear message, that he won’t win in Ukraine,” a presidential adviser told reporters ahead of the meeting. “Our goal is to crush this idea he wants us to believe that he would be somehow winning.”
After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of shortages of arms and soldiers.
Addressing the leaders via video link, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy backed Macron’s warning about an escalation of the conflict: “We must ensure that Putin cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations.”
One area where there could be progress is on a Czech-led initiative to buy hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries, something that France has been cautious about as it wants to prioritize the development of Europe’s own industry.
“The goal is to collect enough money for ammunition that Ukraine needs,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said before traveling to France.
Ammunition supplies have become a critical issue for Kyiv. The European Union, though, is falling short of its target of sending Ukraine a million rounds of artillery shells by March.
“We must be able to deliver more shells. The principle is that shells will be purchased where they are available,” said the French adviser. “There is no dogmatic [French] position.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Foreign Minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as leaders from Scandinavian and Baltic nations, were among those attending. Poland is represented by its president, Andrzej Duda.
The United States, which has been under much scrutiny as its latest military aid package for Ukraine has stalled in Congress, will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O’Brien.
French officials said Macron, who is due in Kyiv in March, was keen to seek solutions after a security conference in Munich this month, which coincided with the death of Putin’s leading domestic opponent Alexei Navalny, failed to make progress.
“We’re neither doomy nor gloomy,” the French adviser said. “We want Russia to understand that. Russia will have to count on us all collectively to end this war.”
Source: Reuters
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