France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine that would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks but not include ground fighting, French President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister said. Via Reuters:
The comments came amid a flurry of European diplomacy designed to shore up Western support for Ukraine following an acrimonious meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.
"Such a truce on air, sea and energy infrastructure would allow us to determine whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith when he commits to a truce. And that's when real peace negotiations could start," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.
Under the Anglo-French proposal, European ground troops would only be deployed to Ukraine in a second phase, Macron said in an interview published in Le Figaro late on Sunday.
"There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks," Le Figaro quoted Macron as saying as he flew to London for a meeting of European leaders, convened by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advance efforts at drawing up a Ukraine peace plan.
