Europe rushes to respond to US-Russia peace plan with 'crisis meeting' on Saturday - FT
Kyiv • UNN
European leaders are urgently coordinating a response to the US-Russia peace plan for Ukraine. The initiative has caused panic and concern among European officials, who believe it could force Ukraine to cede territory and limit NATO force deployment.
European capitals are scrambling to coordinate a response to a US-Russia peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, "which officials warn would mean 'capitulation' by Kyiv to Moscow's demands," the Financial Times reports, writes UNN.
Details
According to the publication, "the plan and the scale of US pressure on Ukraine shocked European leaders and their national security teams, who on Friday rushed to develop a coordinated response to Washington," people involved in diplomatic negotiations told the Financial Times.
"We are all still analyzing it, but it is moving much faster than we realized," one source said. "It effectively means capitulation [to Moscow]."
Another senior European diplomat said: "We are assessing. The main thing is to stay calm and work towards a more reasonable outcome."
Three senior EU officials said "they were still unsure whether Trump fully supported the plan or whether it was subject to internal disagreements within his administration," the publication writes.
"We are back to square one," another senior EU official said, referring to widespread fears earlier this year that Trump would force Ukraine to accept Russia's demands for peace or lose US military support.
European rearguard efforts to slow or block the US-Russian proposal are complicated by the trip of the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom to South Africa for the G20 summit this weekend, the publication notes.
"Officials said they were preparing for a crisis meeting of European leaders present in Johannesburg at the summit on Saturday," the publication states.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said on Friday that she would "discuss the situation with both European leaders and other leaders here on the sidelines of the G20."
"Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," von der Leyen said, reiterating the EU's long-standing position on peace talks.
António Costa, President of the European Council, representing the 27 EU leaders, said that the EU "had not been officially informed of any [peace] plans."
The US Embassy in Kyiv, the publication writes, "summoned European envoys in the Ukrainian capital for a briefing on the plan on Friday afternoon, along with US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll." Driscoll met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday to outline the proposal.
Zelenskyy and Trump to discuss peace plan next week - media21.11.25, 13:02 • 2727 views
"The panic among European capitals resembled previous episodes earlier this year, when the Trump administration made proposals to Ukraine without consulting or informing European partners," the publication notes.
According to the publication, "in addition to demanding that Ukraine relinquish control of the territory it currently controls, European officials were most concerned about the proposal to ban the deployment of NATO forces in Ukraine and the call for the use of $100 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets in reconstruction projects that would benefit the United States."
How markets reacted
Shares of European defense companies, which have risen sharply this year as the continent increased its spending commitments, fell sharply on Friday morning, the publication indicates. The Stoxx 600 Aerospace and Defense Index fell 2.6%. Renk Group shares fell 8.2%, Rheinmetall by 5.7%, and Hensoldt by 5.2% during morning trading in Europe.
Oil prices also fell, with Brent down 1.2% to $62.64 a barrel. Gas prices fell, with European benchmark TTF futures down 0.8% to €30.48 per megawatt-hour.