European leaders, who responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for an “emergency summit” to discuss how to counter the perceived sidelining of the US by President Donald Trump, were “warmongers” warned Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
Moscow and Washington announced that bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia, which would precede a possible summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Riyadh, would begin on Tuesday. Macron called EU leaders to an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday to address the Ukraine conflict, after Washington indicated that the EU would not be at the table if the US and Russia negotiated a peace deal.
At a press conference in Kazakhstan on Monday, Szijjártó stated, “We trust that the American-Russian negotiations will be successful and we hope that this will lead to a peace in Ukraine as soon as possible. . We must, however, also see that those who do not want peace are organizing in Europe.” He added, “Those who have consistently poured oil on the fire in the past three years are meeting today in Paris” and branded the participants as “warmongering countries following a misguided strategy.”
Since Trump’s re-election, his administration has signaled a shift in US foreign policy, focusing on minimizing American involvement in any potential ceasefire in Ukraine that could be reached, while also demanding that NATO member states on the continent contribute more to collective defense. The US has sent a document to gauge the willingness of its European allies, including the possibility of deploying peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, as reported by Reuters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasized that he is prepared to send British soldiers to protect Kiev in the event of a ceasefire, providing security guarantees. Macron has also repeatedly mentioned the possibility of Western troops being sent to the region, both as a peacekeeping force and as a combat force. Last year, the French president suggested that the deployment of troops could be a legitimate option if Russian troops were to break through the Ukrainian front line and Kiev were to request help.