European leaders to discuss Ukraine’s security guarantees at ‘Coalition of the Willing’ summit

European leaders will on Tuesday meet in Paris to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine under the framework of the ‘Coalition for the Willing’.

At the summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s partners will focus on securing contributions to a multinational force to enforce a ceasefire in Ukraine with the US support in the case of any negotiated end to the war, according to Reuters.

Previously, Macron had referred to security guarantees and said “many European states and allies will make concrete commitments” in the Tuesday’s summit.

Among those expected to attend are British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are also scheduled to attend.

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The Coalition of the Willing is a grouping led by Macron and Starmer and has more than 30 member-states. Several members have so far indicated openness to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a multinational force supported by an American backstop in case of a peace deal.

The leader-level summit comes after national security advisers from 15 countries —including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany— held talks in Kyiv over the weekend with representatives from Nato and European Union (EU). Witkoff had joined the discussions virtually.

Security guarantees, nature of ceasefire top summit’s agenda

Security guarantees for Ukraine and the nature of ceasefire with Russia are set to be at the top of the summit’s agenda.

Ukraine’s partners will aim to agree contributions for a wider set of security guarantees for Ukraine, including binding commitments if it is attacked again despite a peace deal, according to Reuters.

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Zelenskyy has previously said that any commitments will need to be approved by participating countries’ parliaments, which will make them legally binding. Such an approach is shaped by previous failed agreements like the Budapest Memorandum and Minsk 1 and 2.

The summit will also aim to agree on next steps to increase support for Ukraine and ramp up pressure on Russia should President Vladimir Putin continue to refuse to engage in meaningful negotiations, as per the news agency.

“We have reached agreement on the operational details of the security guarantees. We will explain how they are structured and the need for a long-term commitment from everyone involved,” a French presidency official said ahead of the summit.

Separately, a senior European official told Reuters that the hope was that firming up the Coalition of the Willing’s guarantees would also help cement US commitments that have been broadly outlined in bilateral discussions with Ukraine.

While no one has gone into the specifics so far, there have been reports that the Trump administration has offered Ukraine security guarantee modelled after Article 5 of Nato that underpins the collective defence principle of the alliance.

Previously, Ukraine has said a deal was “90 per cent” ready but the contentious issue of territory has remained unaddressed. Even as Trump’s initial ‘28 point plan’ has been revised into a plan much more acceptable to Ukraine, Putin has rejected all versions of the plan just like all plans previously floated by Trump. He has stuck to his longstanding maximalist demands that amount to Ukraine’s surrender and its cessation as a sovereign nation-state.