French President Macron in Poland: Ukrainians Must Be Granted Strong Security Guarantees
A lasting peace in Ukraine can only be achieved with the consent and participation of Ukrainians in peace negotiations. The West must provide Ukraine with appropriate security guarantees in the future. French President Emmanuel Macron said this during a joint media briefing with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on Thursday, Ukrinform reports.
Macron stressed that Poland is currently playing an important role in helping Ukraine in military, logistical and humanitarian aspects, and all European countries should be aware of this.
He emphasised that France and Poland agree on the need to support Ukraine at this important stage, when the Russian offensive continues.
‘We also share a common view of the future: only a lasting peace is possible, and it must be achieved by Ukrainians through negotiations. It is necessary to provide Ukrainians with strong security guarantees,’ Macron said.
He added that Paris and Warsaw say with one voice that ‘peace in Ukraine is impossible without the consent of Ukrainians’.
‘They are the ones who should negotiate. But there will be no security in Europe without Europeans, and from this point of view, the discussion we are having is very important. Lasting security in Ukraine is also lasting security in Europe,’ the French president stressed.
Macron stressed that it is necessary to provide Ukraine with ‘appropriate security guarantees’ in the future.
In this context, the French President noted that France makes its own sovereign decisions, and so does Poland.
He recalled his trilateral meeting in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President-elect Donald Trump. Macron added that the United States would play a new role in the coming weeks and months in Ukraine.
‘The Trump administration has indicated its willingness to influence the development of this conflict. So we need to work very closely with the United States, obviously in close contact with Ukraine, to find a possible way that takes into account the interests of Ukraine, its sovereignty and the interests of Europeans and the security of Europe,’ Macron said.
He said that negotiations on Ukraine will also take place next week at a meeting of the European Council, where the G7 countries will discuss the decision to allocate €50 billion to Ukraine.
In addition, Macron drew attention to the threat posed by Russia, which is trying to influence elections in European countries, particularly in Moldova, Georgia, and Romania. In this context, he stressed the need to ‘strengthen joint actions to monitor the situation and ensure that manipulation in cyberspace becomes impossible’.