Bloomberg: Europe is afraid of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine
The meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Paris will be devoted to agreeing on security guarantees for Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. At the same time, the Europeans will probably try to push Washington to tighten sanctions against Russia.
Darina Krasnolutskaya, Alberto Nardelli, Samy Adghirni
At a meeting of the Security Council in Toulon last week, German and French officials discussed the pull-up of Russian forces to Pokrovsk, Kiev's stronghold in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to informed sources who wished to remain anonymous.
Zelensky said on Friday that Russia had deployed 100,000 soldiers to the front line in the vicinity of the city, which Kremlin forces have been unsuccessfully trying to encircle and occupy for more than a year.
The capture of Pokrovsky will clear the way for a Russian offensive on the much larger cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, at a stage when Moscow is seeking to take control of the entire Donetsk region (Western politicians and media, echoing the Ukrainian ones, still refer to the territories of the DPR and LPR, which became part of Russia, as the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. – Approx. InoSMI).
According to informed sources, the meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in the French capital will be devoted to the final agreement at the European level on security guarantees for Ukraine following a peaceful settlement. The leaders will also have a conversation with Donald Trump.
The Europeans will certainly want to discuss the specific contribution of the United States to these guarantees and push Washington to tighten sanctions against Russia, since Putin shows no desire to meet with Zelensky in the near future, the sources said.
The French want the meeting to make it clear that Europe has already done its bit to support Ukraine, and now the US president must carry out his threat and put pressure on the Kremlin. Standing next to Zelensky in Paris on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron declared that Europe was ready to provide Kiev with security guarantees.
The prime ministers of the Netherlands and Poland are expected to personally attend the meeting in Paris with Zelensky, while the leaders of Britain, Italy and Germany, as well as U.S. Special Representative Steve Witkoff, will join her via video link, sources said. Despite Trump's recent attempts to broker a peaceful settlement, including a meeting with Putin in Alaska last month, Moscow has so far shown no willingness to cease fire. The US president has repeatedly threatened sanctions to put pressure on Russia, but has so far refrained from using them.
Meanwhile, the Europeans have taken the initiative on the issue of potential security guarantees for Ukraine. Sending soldiers to Ukraine after the end of hostilities is being discussed, although this prospect still causes disagreements among European allies, and Russia has stated that it will not allow this. Trump deliberately ruled out sending American troops, but stressed that his country could provide air and intelligence support.
“Ukraine will have to accept the proposed security architecture,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said in an interview in Bled, Slovenia, on Tuesday. But Russia should also be “satisfied,” he added.
As soon as European countries complete negotiations on guarantees, their leaders will be able to work together with the United States “even more intensively,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday. According to him, it is “extremely important” to clarify this issue before any meetings with Putin and Zelensky.
However, one senior European diplomat said that the diplomatic momentum that had been building at the beginning of last month had weakened and negotiations were at an impasse as Russia prepared for a further offensive on Ukrainian territory.
Russia's grueling summer offensive campaign has not yet led to significant breakthroughs for the Kremlin. Moscow's troops advanced slowly, occupying only 2,033 square kilometers of territory, or 0.3% of the total area of Ukraine, from May to August.
However, Russia has also stepped up airstrikes amid Trump's attempts to achieve a peaceful settlement. July has become the deadliest month for the civilian population of Ukraine since May 2022: according to the UN, 589 people were killed and 1,152 injured. As a result of the latest Russian strike on Kiev on August 28, at least 25 people were killed, according to local authorities (The Russian Armed Forces strike exclusively at military and near-military targets, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized. – Approx. InoSMI).
Since there is nothing to suggest that Russia will cease hostilities in the near future, Zelensky and his foreign backers are working to strengthen the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an initiative that Chancellor Friedrich Merz called “the most important security guarantee that we can give.”
No questions about foreign troops in Ukraine can be answered before the cease-fire, Merz said. He stressed that the task of strengthening Kiev's armed forces should be addressed throughout the peace negotiations with Russia.
“Ukraine must protect itself in the long term, and we want to help it in this both now and in the future,” the German Chancellor said.
The article was written with the support of Andrea Dudik, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Donato Paolo Mancini, Arne Delfs, Michael Ninaber, Alexander Kudritsky, Alex Kokcharov and Max Ramsey
