Paris summit rejects Russia sanctions relief, mulls Ukraine force

PARIS: European countries agreed at a summit in Paris on Thursday to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.

President Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine´s European allies and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the latest effort to agree a coordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.

The United States claims tentative progress towards a ceasefire to end the three-year conflict sparked by Russian President Vladimir Putin´s full-scale invasion in February 2022.But as yet a peace deal appears far off and the meeting of over two dozen European heads of state and government also underlined differences within the “coalition of the willing”, with not all states signing onto the French-British plan to deploy troops postwar.

“He really wants to divide Europe and America, Putin really wants that,” Zelensky said after the summit, adding Kyiv wants Washington to be “stronger” towards the Kremlin.He warned “everybody understood and understands that today Russia does not want any kind of peace”.