(26 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 26 March 2025
1. Wide of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron (right) walking to podiums
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
‘”Far from proving that it really wants peace, Russia continues, day after day, to strike intensively Ukrainian territory, civilian targets included. We condemn these strikes, and they must absolutely stop. All in all, Mr President, you took the risk of peace by proposing and accepting this 30-day ceasefire in the air and on civilian infrastructure, to date, Russia has provided no solid response and by its actions has shown its willingness to wage war and continue the aggression."
3. Wide of Zelenskyy and Macron at podiums
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
“What is the potential peacekeeping, monitoring or surveillance mechanism? We will talk about that tomorrow. It’s not up to us to pre-empt it. It’s up to us to provide reassurance and perhaps a framework and support if the choice made by Ukraine, are the united nations. But that’s in the context of any peacekeeping operations and what happens on the front line. Then, in order to guarantee security, which is not the same thing as keeping the peace, in order to guarantee security, which is basically to say that if tomorrow Russia, as it has done every time if I may remind you, were to resume an operation, in three years, in five years, what would happen? What will prevent us from repeating yesterday’s mistakes? The first thing is the format of the Ukrainian army. And why is that? Because today it is in fact the largest army in Europe. So, all the work that we have started and that we are going to continue is to ask ourselves what is the format of the Ukrainian army and what capabilities does this Ukrainian army have that would enable it to deter further Russian aggression or to resist it? So, it’s a military task, a capability training programme and long-term support for this army of Europeans, because, in a way, it is the avant-garde of our collective security."
++BLACK FRAMES++
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
6. Mid of Zelenskyy and Macron leaving conference
STORYLINE:
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a proposed European armed force for possible deployment in Ukraine in tandem with an eventual peace deal could “respond” to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.
Macron spoke after talks with Ukraine’s president and ahead of a summit in Paris of some 30 nations on Thursday that will discuss the proposed force for Ukraine that Macron suggested could be deployed in “important towns” and elsewhere.
“If there were to be widespread aggression again on Ukrainian soil, these armies would in fact be attacked. And then there is the framework of engagement,” Macron said.
"We have soldiers who, when they commit themselves and are deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the head of the armed forces. And if they are in a conflict situation, to respond.”
Macron, together with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has been driving an effort to build a coalition of nations willing in one way or another to support the deployment of an armed force in Ukraine, with the aim of securing a lasting peace by dissuading Russia from attacking the country again.
Macron didn’t specify what sort of response he envisaged in the eventuality of a Russian attack.
He said the proposed European forces wouldn’t be stationed on the frontlines in Ukraine, “nor to be engaged on day one against the Russian forces.”
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