French President Emmanuel Macron just ahead of the start of Friday's Munich Security Conference, which will run through the weekend, declared that only Ukraine's President Zelensky can negotiate with Putin.
It was a shot across the bow warning against Trump's peace plan, the contours of which are beginning to show, with the French leader saying it could amount to "capitulation" if Russia isn't forced to make any serious concessions.
Macron warned in a fresh interview with the Financial Times that a "peace that is a capitulation" would be "bad news for everyone" - including the United Sates and that fundamentally it must be the Ukrainians driving the talks.
Yet the reality is that Ukraine is not in the driver's seat on the battlefield, where the conflict is being decided. And the outcome of talks is going to reflect this lack of true military leverage.
Macron continued, "The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably and credibly willing to agree to a ceasefire on this basis. After that, it’s up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia."
Thus Macron did make clear that he's open to this "window of opportunity" for a negotiated solution which Trump is jump-starting. He said that "everyone has to play their role."
There are aspects of Trump's emerging plan that Macron appears to have welcomed, per the FT:
Nonetheless, the French president endorsed the Trump administration’s position that it was Europe’s responsibility to ensure Ukraine’s security, saying it stemmed from a generational and bipartisan shift in America’s foreign policy priorities away from Europe and towards Asia.
US unilateralism did not start with Trump’s return to power, Macron added, noting that he “did not receive a call” in advance from the Biden administration about its “Aukus” nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the UK or about its withdrawal from Afghanistan. “What Trump is saying to Europe is that it is up to you to carry the burden. And I say, it is up to us to take it on,” Macron said.
Trump policy toward Europe and ending the Ukraine war is now widely being referred to as 'electroshock' in various publications after the Macron interview:
The message is clear – an ‘electroshock’, as French President Emmanuel Macron called it: European countries will have to step up defense spending if they intend to protect themselves from Russian aggression.
Other European leaders have displayed outright anger over what they say is going over Zelensky's head and showing willingness to deal directly with Putin. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday blasted the potential for peace talks that would cut out Zelensky or the Europeans.
"A sham peace — over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans — would gain nothing," Baerbock said at the start of the security conference. "A sham peace would not bring lasting security, neither for the people in Ukraine nor for us in Europe or the United States," she added, according to Reuters.