Western capitals are bracing for a potentially decisive week for European security, as the US and Russia begin talks to end the war in Ukraine and European leaders hold an emergency meeting to respond to the fast-moving negotiations taking place without them.
Europe’s most powerful leaders will gather in Paris on Monday for crisis talks on Ukraine and the future of European defence, sparked by Donald Trump’s decision to open peace talks with Russia. Those talks will formally begin in Saudi Arabia this week when Trump’s top diplomat Marco Rubio sits down with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov.
The Rubio-Lavrov meeting aims to lay the groundwork for Trump to meet Vladimir Putin, less than a week after the US leader shocked European capitals by agreeing with his Russian counterpart to start peace talks.