by Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters) – Around twenty European leaders are meeting in Paris on Monday to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message of determination on Ukraine and counter the Kremlin’s speech on Russia’s announced victory, the Elysée said on Sunday .
Emmanuel Macron invited his European counterparts to the Elysée for a hastily organized working meeting, while France notes an intensification of Russian aggressiveness in recent weeks in Ukraine but also beyond, according to a advisor to the French president.
“Our objective is to make President Putin doubt, to break this idea that he is tempted to believe that he will win,” declared an adviser to Emmanuel Macron during a press briefing.
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After initial successes against the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on the battlefields in the east in recent weeks, as its generals complain of a lack of weapons and soldiers.
German Chancellor Olaf Schloz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, British Foreign Minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as well as Scandinavian, Baltic and Polish leaders, among others, are expected in Paris.
The United States will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O’Brien while Canada will be represented by Defense Minister Bill Blair.
The Elysée also said it wanted to fight against the ambient catastrophism in Europe, while the English expression ‘doom and gloom’ was circulating about Ukraine in the corridors of the Munich security conference at the start of the month.
“We are neither ‘doomy’ nor ‘gloomy’,” the Franglais advisor said in the text.
“We want Russia to understand this. Russia will have to count on us collectively to end the war and restore Ukraine’s rights.”
However, European countries should not make new announcements of arms deliveries to Ukraine, according to the advisor, but will consider ways to be more effective on the ground and improve coordination between the allies and Ukraine.
The Elysée says it has noted renewed aggressiveness and attempts at intimidation on the part of Russia in Europe in recent weeks, including the death of a Russian deserter in Spain this month, at a time when support to Ukraine is called into question by the presidential election.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; French version Zhifan Liu)
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