At a meeting with Europeans in Paris, US officials said they want to secure a full ceasefire in Ukraine "within weeks", Bloomberg reports, citing sources, writes UNN.
US officials indicated at a meeting with Europeans in Paris that they want to secure a full ceasefire in Ukraine within weeks, part of a renewed push to halt hostilities in Russia’s three-year war
The discussions on Thursday, which included a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and US representative Steve Witkoff and in which Ukrainian officials took part, reportedly focused, according to sources, "mainly on how to move to a ceasefire and lasting peace as soon as possible." Participants told US officials that they "fully support President Donald Trump's main goal of ending the war quickly," the publication said.
US officials said they "expect significant progress soon, and participants at Thursday's meeting agreed to work in that direction," people said.
National security advisers and negotiators from Germany, France, the US and the UK will meet again in London next week to continue their discussions in the French capital, the Elysee Palace said.
The Paris meeting marked Europe's latest attempt to influence the outcome of the negotiations, the publication writes.
European officials "wanted to know what actions the Trump administration would take if it did not make progress from Putin, and they wanted to convince Washington of the need to strengthen its position on Moscow, including through a "large-scale" sanctions package that Trump had previously signaled he was considering," another senior official said.
Thursday's meetings, which also included UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell, built on efforts by France and the UK to form post-war "assurance forces" in Ukraine, the Elysee Palace said.
Officials in Paris and London hope the plan will demonstrate that Europe is serious about allocating its own resources to Ukraine's post-war future and convince Trump to commit to guaranteeing security for Ukraine, Bloomberg reported last week.
The meetings in Paris were also attended by Zelensky's first aide Andriy Yermak, Defense Ministers Rustem Umerov and Foreign Ministers Andriy Sybiha and other officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
"We are working on critical issues for the security of Ukraine and all of Europe," Yermak wrote on X earlier on Thursday.