European leaders are planning to meet 18 December in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO chief Mark Rutte to discuss peace plans and the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine.
As reported by Politico, the meeting comes in the wake of pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump for European countries to monitor any future peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow by sending troops to Ukraine, five people with knowledge of the meeting told the outlet.
In addition to Rutte and Zelenskyy, the invited participants include: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the people said.
The Polish Press Agency first reported the news. Reuters reported that Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also participate.
Spokespeople for Scholz, Von der Leyen, Macron, Costa and Rutte were unable to be reached or declined to comment.
The meeting will be organized on the sidelines of an EU-Western Balkans summit on Wednesday 18 December in the afternoon, for which EU leaders will be traveling to Brussels.
Related:
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- “It’s maturity test for Europe to send troops to Ukraine,” expert
- Biden: About 80,000 US troops deployed in Europe to deter Russian aggression
- Germany leads effort to boost European defense aid to Kyiv
- UK’s Lammy dismisses rumors of British troop deployment in Ukraine
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