A day after European leaders gathered in London to show support for Ukraine following a White House dispute between Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, France announced on Monday that a proposed one-month truce would serve as a test of Moscow’s commitment to ending the war it initiated with its 2022 invasion. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told reporters that he and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would put forward an interim peace plan aimed at curbing Russian airstrikes, naval harassment, and attacks on energy infrastructure in eastern Ukraine. He added that European peacekeepers would only be deployed to the border in a second phase of the plan, emphasizing that the presence of European troops on Ukrainian soil is “out of the question for the moment.”
The proposal, which aims to stabilize the situation, will be presented to Kyiv and the United States. The two nations are also considering creating a joint task force to work with Russia on preventing humanitarian disasters in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea as a sign of “propaganda.”
Amid the growing political chasm between the US and European Union over Trump’s approach to Russia, Starmer has positioned himself as a diplomatic bridge between the West and Ukraine. He hosted a weekend meeting of 18 European leaders—including the heads of state or government from Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland—at Lancaster House, a 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace, to discuss Ukraine.
He urged them to shore up their borders, take the fight to Russia in the sky and at sea, and step up defense spending to match that of the US. “Every nation must do its share, bringing different capabilities and support to the table but all taking responsibility to act,” he said. “It is in our national interest that we do that.”
EU defense chiefs met separately with Zelenskyy on Sunday and vowed to push for a peace deal that includes security guarantees for Ukraine. Starmer said he’ll present the new plan to the US and “work with them on this.”
However, whether the Trump administration will back up any peace deal for Ukraine is unclear. Starmer said he would try to convince the president that a pause in hostilities should be accompanied by “robust” security guarantees and that Kyiv would have more bargaining power if it knew the West was willing to defend the country against any future Russian aggression.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who attended the summit, warned that a lack of investment undermines Europe’s defense capability. She backed Starmer’s call for the EU to allocate up to 3 and 3.5 percent of its GDP to defense and said it should be a priority. “If we don’t do this, we are encouraging the Russians to amp up their objectives,” she said. “The Ukraine front line keeps getting closer to us.” She added that the EU has a strategic interest in protecting its borders and needs the resources to do so.