A satisfied Emmanuel Macron announced at Thursday's summit in Paris that 26 countries are ready to send peacekeeping soldiers to Ukraine.
After the French president's press conference together with Volodymyr Zelenskyj, several of the European leaders participated in a phone call between Zelenskyj and Donald Trump. The latter then demanded, according to the White House, that Europe puts economic pressure on China due to the country's support for Russia's ongoing invasion war.
Trump also demanded that Europe stops buying Russian oil that finances the war, says a high-ranking source within the American administration to the news agency AFP.
Volodymyr Zelenskyj says after the conversation that Trump is "very dissatisfied" with European oil purchases and specifically points out Hungary and Slovakia.
Warns Putin
Prior to the conversation with Zelenskyj, Trump sent a warning to Russia's president Vladimir Putin.
He knows where I stand and he will make a decision in some way. Depending on his decision, we will be satisfied or dissatisfied, said Trump and added that "things will happen" if the USA is dissatisfied with Russia's continued actions.
Emmanuel Macron said at the earlier press conference that new European sanctions in cooperation with the USA are to be expected if Russia continues to block concrete peace talks. An agreement on American support for the European-led security guarantees will be completed "in the coming days", according to Macron.
Not ready?
Getting an end to the war in Ukraine was one of Donald Trump's prominent election promises. In August, he held a summit with President Putin in Alaska, which ended without any direct agreements. Trump claimed, however, that Putin had agreed to a meeting with Ukraine's Zelenskyj, which later proved to be unfounded.
President Trump says he is still "realistic and optimistic" when it comes to getting a peace agreement, according to a phone interview with CBS News late on Wednesday. In it, he tells that he "closely monitors" the two leaders' maneuvers when it comes to getting peace talks started.
I have seen it and I have talked about it with President Putin and President Zelenskyj. Something will happen but they are not ready yet, he says.
