What the key players want happymamay

This specified week of the war in Ukraine can be proven with two groups of talks arranged in a hurry in Paris and its leadership.

European leaders are gathering in France while they are scrambled to respond to Donald Trump’s plan to open negotiations with Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet in the Saudi capital.

Ukraine does not attend any of the conversations.

Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls more than five lands, especially in the south and east.

BBC correspondents analyze what the main powers hope to achieve gains from extensive two -day diplomacy.

UK

Written by Harry Farley, the political correspondent in London

Sir Kerr Starmer hopes to be a bridge between European leaders and the White House of Trump linking them to their defensive spending.

Starmer’s offer is to put UK forces on the ground in Ukraine as part of this role he wants to play.

The government used to say that the conditions of any peace deal were left to Ukraine. This has turned with the new American administration, which indicates that the return to the 2014 limits was “unrealistic”.

Instead, Sir Kerr hopes that more European countries in Paris will join him in providing its forces to secure a deal – and prevent Russia to invade again.

But while the Prime Minister is in Paris, at Westminster, the debate continues about how much the country should spend on the defense.

The Labor Party has promised to “determine a road” to increase defense spending from 2.3 % of GDP to 2.5 %. Defense sources say this will be a significant increase.

But there is no date for the date of that – and many argue that it is an appendix now.

Germany

Written by Damian McGoenis, Germany’s correspondent in Berlin

It is a sign of how Trump approaches Trump’s approach to Ukraine Just a few days before the national elections Counselor Olaf Schools is also in Paris.

All major parties have condemned American suggestions that a peace deal will be mediated with a peace deal without Ukraine or the European Union. The right -wing politicians and legs welcomed the population with talks with Putin and want to stop arming Kyiv. But they will not enter power.

So, whatever the next German government, Berlin’s support for Ukraine will remain strong. This is because the political elite in Berlin realizes that the bad deal – which undermines Ukrainian sovereignty – will be disastrous for Germany.

But taking into account the twentieth century torn by the war in Germany, the voters here are cautious about militarization.

Over the past three years, the country has succeeded in overcoming Russian energy and widespread defensive spending. However, this hit the German economy strongly and raised the subsequent budgets the collapse of the German government.

Therefore, politicians are trying to avoid public discussions on difficult issues, such as the goals of the higher spending of NATO or the German peacekeeping forces in Ukraine – at least even after the elections.

Poland

Written by Sarah Ranford, Eastern European correspondent in Warsaw

Poland has been a major supporter of Ukraine since the beginning of the full invasion of Russia, the main logistics center for military and humanitarian aid entering the country.

It is also a high voice that argues that Russia cannot be allowed to win the war it launched – because the entire security of Europe is at stake. Therefore, there is horror that seems to be the United States as if to give up Moscow’s main demands, even before the conversations begin, when Poland clearly sees Russia that is the aggressor and dangerous.

Russia is the reason that Poland spends greatly on its army – up to approximately 5 % of GDP – and agrees with the United States that the rest of Europe should do the same.

On his way to the talks in Paris, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “If we fail, the Europeans, in great spending on defense now, we will have to spend 10 times more if we do not prevent a wider war.”

Regarding whether the Polish forces will be sent to Ukraine – to help in applying any endowment in the end – government officials were cautious, and they are now excluding.

North and Tilapia countries

Written by Nick Book, European correspondent in Copenhagen

Denmark will be the only northern nation at the Monday meeting. But European diplomats say that it will also represent the interests of its Baltic neighbors in the east – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and they all border Russia and feel that they are particularly vulnerable to any Putin’s attack in the future.

The shock waves created by the Trump II term were already hesitating about Denmark.

His desire to renew Trump to take over Greenland – an independent Danish -based area – pushed the Prime Minister in Denmark Metty Friedriksen on a tour of the whistle of European allies last month to support support.

On Monday in Paris, Friedriksen finds herself again at a hastily enjoying meeting to respond to Trump’s reshaping of the via Atlantic security scene.

Frederiksen has not yet followed Starmer from the pledge of peacekeeping shoes on Earth in Ukraine.

The Danish media, Defense Secretary of Defense Tuels Lunders, as saying that he does not rule out – but it is too early to talk about him.

France

Written by Andrew Harding, Paris correspondent

French President Emmanuel Macron called on the unofficial meeting on Monday-and-not-“summit”, and his officials-to help Europe coordinate in response to the uncompromising situation in Washington both towards the continent, and anything that comes out of the White House High negotiations with the Kremlin.

“The Europeans, as we are talking, are not coordinators, but this may be the goal of the summit (this) in Paris, and this is the beginning of coordination … Are we ready? The answer is no. Can we prepare? It comments on the need for Europe to work together to prepare a potential peacekeeping power for Ukraine.

“There are winds of unity that blows all over Europe as it has not been seen since Kofid,” said Jean -Nouil Barrot, the largest diplomat in France.

Mood in France-a nation is always cautious about the American geopolitical maneuver-it is particularly excited at the present time, with a new newspaper warning from the new Trump Putin axis that would abandon Europe or “give up” the war in Ukraine.

“We must be in an emergency in Europe,” former Prime Minister Dominic de Philipin warned at a recent press conference, accusing “Trump” of trying to “rule the world without principles or respect.”

Russia

Written by Lisa Fukht, Russian BBC in Paris

Since the summer, Putin has stated that its main conditions for the start of negotiations to end the war are the recognition of the Ukrainian lands occupied by Russian, the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and the denial of Ukraine’s request to join NATO.

Most European countries categorically reject these demands. The United States was very cautious in discussing concessions that Russia may have to make, although both the White House and the Pentagon said they expect concessions from “both sides”.

It is clear that Moscow’s priority is the meeting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “he will love first and foremost listen” to the American proposals about ending the conflict in Ukraine.

As for Europe, Moscow does not see any feasibility in calling for the negotiating table.

It is not a secret that for many years, Putin specifically sought a dialogue with the United States – a country that blames it for the start of the war in Ukraine and was considered the only force equal to Russia.

Moscow may notice Starmer’s statements about being ready to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine – for the first time in a week, a discussion revolves around possible Russian concessions, not Ukrainian.

But whether Russia is ready for any compromise is still an open issue.

US

Written by Bernd Deposman Junior from Mar Lago, Florida

Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and the Special Envoy to the Middle East will be Steve Whitchov, the general face of the American team that is negotiating in Riyadh – but the main sound on the table may be more than 7400 miles (11900 km), in Palm Beach, Florida.

Despite Trump’s general associations in recent days, it is clear that negotiations with Russia on the fate of Ukraine were his focus behind the scenes.

On Sunday, Trump told the correspondents that he was aware of the latest developments and that the conversations were “moving along”.

Its goal in the short term is to stop the fighting in Ukraine. In the long run, it appears to want a lower American involvement, given that the United States has sent tens of billions of weapons to Kyiv.

Trump has also prompted the rare minerals in Ukraine for aid, or even with the support of the United States already provided.

But he has not yet said how Ukraine will look after the war, which led to the alarm bells in Europe.

He also said he expected Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine part of the “conversation”, but not conversations in Riyadh. Rubio said that the talks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are only the beginning of a longer operation that will include “clear” Europe and Ukraine.

These observations are likely to make little comfort for us the allies who have listened to Trump’s statements during the past few days.

In response to the BBC question on Wednesday, Trump said he believed that he tends to agree to the evaluation of Defense Minister Beit Higseth that returning to the pre -2014 borders is unrealistic for Ukraine, although he is expected to get Ukraine.

To date, it seems that the solution is not as far as Zelinski and the rest of Ukraine’s leadership.

Written by Mariana Mattechuk, BBC Ukraine in Kyiv

The Ukrainian people feel that their future is not certain as it was in February 2022.

Ukrainians want peace – so that they do not wake up to the sounds of sirens and do not lose their loved ones in the battlefield and in the cities of the front lines.

Russia occupies approximately 25 % of Ukraine. Ukraine defense cost tens of thousands of its citizens.

In the past, the country insisted that any peace agreement includes the full withdrawal of the Russian forces from the Ukrainian lands. This does not include not only the areas that Russia seized in its widespread attack, but also the Black Crimea Peninsula, which was included in Russia after 2014, the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russia supported the separatists in the fighting, and also after 2014.

Ukrainians are afraid of the peace agreement such as the Peace Agreement in 2014 or 2015 – Heavy fighting was stopped, but Crossfire on the Border continued to achieve losses.

With no security guarantees, this also means the possibility of a new wave of war in a decade or so.

“Ukraine considers any talks on Ukraine without Ukraine in this way, it has no result, and we cannot get to know … agreements on us without us,” said Ukraine President Voludmir Zelinski on the United States’ meeting.

Whatever the form of peace talks, Ukrainians want an agency for their future.

Many see that previous peace arrangements with Russia have simply paved the way for its wide conquest. So the Ukrainian fear is that any agreed deal on its head can lead to a third round of war.