Europäer, marginalisiert von Trump und Putin, erweisen sich als gespalten über das Senden von Truppen

**Emmanuel Macron brought together eight European leaders and the heads of NATO and EU bodies in a mini-summit at the Elysée on Monday, less than a week after Washington and Moscow agreed to begin ‚immediate‘ negotiations to end the conflict.**

While the US and Russian foreign ministers, Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, [are meeting in Riyadh](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/18/us-russia-talks-begin-in-saudi-with-no-seat-for-ukraine_6738283_4.html), on Tuesday, February 18, to begin the „normalization“ of their relations, European leaders [failed to demonstrate their unity](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2025/02/17/any-talk-of-sending-peacekeepers-to-ukraine-now-highly-inappropriate-scholz_6738265_143.html) at the Elysée Palace on Monday. Nevertheless, they still hope to play a role in the upcoming negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, despite Washington’s and Moscow’s signals to the contrary.

After more than three hours of discussions, Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the mini-summit attended by eight European leaders and the heads of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union bodies, refrained from attempting to summarize the content of the debates at the end of the meeting. Some of his guests, such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, were not much more talkative. Late in the evening, the French president simply announced, on X, that, after the talks, he had spoken with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, calling for „strong and credible guarantees“ for Kyiv.

As a prelude to the talks, the Elysée had said that no joint declaration had been planned, and that the meeting was only an informal first step before any decision-making, whether within the EU or NATO. By all accounts, however, the situation was extremely urgent, as the meeting was held less than a week after Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed, on Wednesday, February 12, to begin „immediate“ negotiations to end the war, behind the backs of Kyiv and European countries, almost three years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yet, this time, the sense of urgency that has often been essential for the EU member states to overcome their divisions has not yet enabled them to close ranks.

**Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/18/war-in-ukraine-europeans-marginalized-by-trump-and-putin-prove-divided-over-sending-troops_6738285_4.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/18/war-in-ukraine-europeans-marginalized-by-trump-and-putin-prove-divided-over-sending-troops_6738285_4.html)

This will always be the major question. What will a European army actually look like? Who drives them? Will people of ‘smaller’ countries readily take orders from the bigger ones in the chain of command? What language will be used? Even if this works, its going to take years. How will largely different countries like say, Poland and Belgium work in the same military? Lots of questions!