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The United Kingdom has distanced itself from a proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron for a limited initial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, while Kyiv raised reserves to stop fighting without security guarantee.
The differences emerged after a London show summit in which Europe’s biggest powers tried to project unity and develop a joint plan after a catastrophic meeting of the White House between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymy Zelenskyy, Ukraine.
Macron said after Sunday summit that his idea of a limited ceasefire, a month “in the air, at sea and in the energy infrastructure” would have the advantage of verifying Russia’s goals. The French president has a record of floating policy ideas to push the allies to the agreement.
The United Kingdom, which hosted the summit, said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wanted to move forward with the plan of peace “vigorously”. But Starmer’s allies said a month’s ceasefire was not “a plan in the UK”.
One British official said: “There are various options on the table, undergoing further discussions with US and European partners, but a one -month ceasefire has not been agreed.”
UK Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard warned Monday against a pause in the fighting in Ukraine that could enable Russia to reorganize.
He told Sky News: “The very real concern that Ukrainians have is that every brief pause in the war simply allows the Russians to re-armed, to reorganize and reinvent.”
Zelenskyy has also refused calls for Ukraine to agree with an immediate ceasefire in her fight with Russia. As he left the United Kingdom from the Summit, he said it would be “failure for all” if an interruption of hostilities was not accompanied by detailed security guarantees.
He refused to comment on Macron’s proposal.
The French president told Le Figaro on Sunday that a one-month ceasefire in the air and the sea would be easier than to oversee a ceasefire on the ground along the entire front line. “In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify that the front is being respected,” he said.
“We can measure it,” he said. “You have to understand that the front today is equivalent to the Paris-Budapest line. In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify that the front is being respected.”
French and British leaders hope that an agreement will include American cover for troops from a “European desire coalition” set to secure any ceasefire in Ukraine.
Starmer said after the Summit that while Europe “has to make a heavy rise”, “the effort must have strong American support.” The European plan would also see Zelenskyy sign an agreement with the US to share some of the profits from the use of Ukraine mineral reserves.
The deal was supposed to end on Friday, but was left signed after Trump pulled Zelenskyy out of the White House after their dispute at the Oval Office.
Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to Washington, urged Zelenskyy to sign the mineral agreement and called on Ukraine and European leaders to give “unclear support for President Trump is taking” to mediate a peace.
In the comments that Pollard, the Minister of Armed Forces in the United Kingdom, said they were not “government politics”, Mandelson ABC told: “Ukraine should be the first to engage for a ceasefire and oppose the Russians to pursue.”
Zelenskyy said he did not need to make changes after confronting the White House or coming up with a plan to save his relationship with Trump, though he repeated his gratitude to the American people.
“If you are not over the war and you have no security guarantees, no one is able to control a ceasefire,” the Ukrainian president said from Stansted London Airport while preparing to fly back to Kyiv.
