CNN
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s international envoy, Steve Witkov, will meet Ukrainian officials in Paris at a summit aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s relentless invasion.
If Trump’s pledge to end the war in just one day is a big deal, it is likely that his hopes of securing a full ceasefire until Easter (this weekend) will also fail. Russia has stepped up its strike against Ukraine in recent weeks despite Washington’s overture to Moscow.
These overtures have largely been bystanding the European powers and Kiev so far. That means Thursday’s summit will be the highest level meeting of Ukrainians and US authorities in a few weeks.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister and Defense Minister have arrived in the French capital for the latest summit of the “Willing’s Union.”
Andriy Yermak, top aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the pastor “taking on all important safety issues in Ukraine and Europe.”
For Ukrainian European allies, the summit offers an opportunity to measure the Trump administration’s thoughts on war in Ukraine. Kiev and his allies are uneasy about the parrot of Trump and Witkov’s Kremlin talk points and may view the lecture as an opportunity to confuse and remove those perceptions.
After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for the third time last week, Witkov told Fox News that Ukraine’s peace deal would focus on “the so-called five territories.” Cerezage.
Oleksandr Meretzko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told CNN that Witkov “may be trying to “fake all the righteous respect… by mistake, pushing the Russian narrative.”
In addition to meeting Ukrainian officials, Witkov is scheduled to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. Emmanuel Macron was one of the leaders of European efforts to provide Kiev with security assurances that the US would not do so.
The Trump administration’s efforts to curb Putin have failed as well. After the White House temporarily cut weapons supply and information sharing to Ukraine in March, Kiev quickly agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
Following separate talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials later that month, the White House said both agreed to a ceasefire in the energy infrastructure and the Black Sea.
The Center of Counter Disformation, a Ukrainian think tank, points out that there were few ceasefires to constrain Russian invasions. 22 days after the armistice, Russian troops killed nearly 2.5 times more Ukrainians than before the announcement, the Centre said in an update Tuesday.
Amid signs of an increase in stimulus with Moscow, Trump said last week that “Russia must move,” but otherwise he would not provide a deadline or ultimatum.