“Battered and bruised, but still standing. Ukraine is fighting for itself, for its ideals, for our Europe. Our commitment on her side will not waver,” the French president said on the X social network on Saturday.
In addition, E. Macron has an opportunity to demonstrate the EU’s decisiveness on security issues, which he called to talk regarding even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda will be among around 20 EU heads of state and government attending the meeting, which will begin with a video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Other countries will be represented at ministerial level, and the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, will also come to Paris. Representatives from the United States and Canada are expected to attend the meeting.
“We want to send a clear message”
According to France, this meeting will “examine all measures that can be used to effectively support Ukraine.”
Western officials admit there is a risk that Moscow might gain the upper hand in the war this year when Kyiv runs out of weapons and ammunition.
On Sunday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that half of the military aid promised by the West to Ukraine is being delivered late, and lamented that the promises do not mean that the weapons will reach the country on time.
V. Zelensky, speaking regarding the loss of people in Ukraine, said that 31 thousand people died in the war with Russia. Ukrainian soldiers.
A French presidential official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting would try to dispel the idea that everything is falling apart following Ukraine’s failures on the front.
“We want to send a clear message [Rusijos prezidentui] Vladimir Putin that he will not win in Ukraine,” the official said.
He added that even if there are no plans to announce new aid, the meeting will discuss various ways to act more quickly and efficiently.
“We are not in the mood to lose”
Doubts are currently growing regarding the long-term prospects of US aid to Ukraine, as a new aid package is struggling to secure the approval of lawmakers.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s president stressed that his country’s victory in the war depends on Western support and that he said the United States should approve a major military aid package.
“We are neither giving up nor in the mood to lose,” said the French official, adding that Moscow will not win in Ukraine.
Debra Cagan, a former US diplomat and now senior adviser at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said that if the West had provided Ukraine with weapons such as F-16 fighter jets or German Taurus missiles, “we would be seeing a very different conflict now.”
“Indecision leads to more deaths, more destruction and more difficult decisions,” she added.
The meeting is expected to start at 4:00 p.m. local (17:00 Lithuanian) time.
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2024-04-26 00:15:35
