France and Britain propose partial one-month Ukraine truce, Macron tells Le Figaro
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The truce would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks, but not ground fighting, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS - France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine that would not cover ground fighting, French President Emmanuel Macron told the Le Figaro newspaper on March 2.
However, Mr Macron said the truce would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks.
“In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify (whether fighting) along the front was being respected,” Mr Macron told Le Figaro, adding that the front line was equivalent to the distance between Paris and Budapest.
Mr Macron spoke to Le Figaro as he flew to London for a meeting with European leaders, convened by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advance efforts at drawing up a Ukraine peace plan.
The summit in London came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House meeting with US President Donald Trump ended in acrimony
Under the Franco-British proposal, European ground troops would be deployed to Ukraine in a second phase, Mr Macron said.
“There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks,” Le Figaro quoted Mr Macron as saying.
“The question is how we use this time to try to obtain a truce, with negotiations that will take several weeks and then, once peace is signed, a (troop) deployment.”
Mr Zelensky, asked if he was aware of the plan, told reporters in London: “I’m aware of everything.”
Mr Macron has said his country and other European nations must spend more on defence.
He told Le Figaro that this might mean in the region of 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product. The European Commission also needed to be more innovative in financing defence spending, he said. REUTERS
