Some 20 European leaders meet in Paris on Monday to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message of European resolve on Ukraine and counter the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia is bound to win a war now in its third year.
President Emmanuel Macron has invited his European counterparts to the Elysee Palace for a working meeting announced at short notice to discuss how to ramp up ammunition supplies to Ukraine amid what his advisers say is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks.
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“We want to send Putin a very clear message, that he won’t win in Ukraine,” a presidential adviser told reporters in a briefing. “Our goal is to crush this idea he wants us to believe that he would be somehow winning.”
After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of shortages of arms and soldiers.
Officials say the meeting will not be an occasion to announce new weapon deliveries to Ukraine but more to brainstorm ways to be more efficient on the ground, as well as increase coordination between allies and Ukraine.
One area where there could be progress is on a Czech-led initiative to buy hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries, something that France has been cautious about as it wants to prioritise the development of Europe’s own industry.
“I am about to fly to Paris for a summit that Emmanuel Macron called and which follows up the initiative that I presented at the European Council at the beginning of February,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on X before travelling to France.
“The goal is to collect enough money for ammunition that Ukraine needs.”
Ammunition supplies have become a critical issue for Kyiv. The European Union, though, is falling short of its target of sending Ukraine a million rounds of artillery shells by March.
“We must be able to deliver more shells. The principle is that shells will be purchased where they are available,” said the adviser. “There is no dogmatic (French) position.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British foreign minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as leaders from Scandinavian and Baltic countries, are among those attending.
The United States, which has been under much scrutiny as its latest military aid package for Ukraine has stalled in Congress, will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O’Brien.
French officials said the security conference in Munich earlier this month, which coincided with the death of Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, Alexei Navalny, was all about “doom and gloom”, and that Macron, who is due in Kyiv in March, was keen to dispel that.
“We’re neither doomy nor gloomy,” the French adviser said. “We want Russia to understand that. Russia will have to count on us all collectively to end this war and restore Ukraine’s rights.”
French officials have said Russia has shown renewed aggression in recent weeks, including as Putin’s flight on a nuclear-capable bomber, in what they view as an attempt to intimidate Europeans at a time U.S. support is thrown into doubt by the presidential election.
Without offering details, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has long opposed military supplies to Ukraine and has taken a position seen by some critics as pro-Russian, said ahead of travelling to Paris that several NATO and EU members were considering sending soldiers to Ukraine on a bilateral basis.
