Macron and Zelensky to discuss ‘security guarantees’ in Paris
President Emmanuel Macron meets his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for talks in Paris on Monday as Washington seeks to push a plan aimed at ending the war between Kyiv and Moscow.
As FRANCE 24’s Philip Turle explains, the key point that should be discussed are the security guarantees in the debated Ukraine peace plan proposed by the US.
ICC president vows to resist US and Russian pressure despite sanctions and threats
The president of the International Criminal Court said during the institution’s annual meeting Monday that it will not bow to pressure from the United States and Russia.
Nine staff members, including six judges and the court’s chief prosecutor, have been sanctioned by U.S. President Donald Trump for pursuing investigations into US and Israeli officials, while Moscow has issued warrants for staff in response to an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.
“We never accept any kind of pressure,” Judge Tomoko Akane told delegations from the court’s 125 member states.
The sanctions have taken their toll on the court’s work across a broad array of investigations at a time when the institution is juggling ever more demands on its resources.
Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Dnipro kills three (official)
A Russian missile attack on Dnipro in central Ukraine has killed three people and wounded at least a dozen more, the local governor said Monday.
“All emergency services are working at the site of the missile attack in Dnipro. Currently, three people are reported killed,” the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Vladyslav Gaivanenko said on Telegram, adding that 15 people were wounded.
Zelensky to make first official visit to Ireland on Tuesday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to arrive in Ireland on Monday evening for his first official visit, following his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
The visit comes as intense negotiations continue over a plan to end the war in Ukraine, spearheaded by the US, with Ukrainian and Russian involvement, but no direct European participation thus far.
During his stay, Zelensky is expected to meet with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris. He will also pay a courtesy visit to Ireland’s newly-elected president, Catherine Connolly, whose role is largely ceremonial.
Kremlin says Putin to meet US envoy Witkoff Tuesday afternoon
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks on Ukraine with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday afternoon, the Kremlin said.
“The meeting with Witkoff is planned for tomorrow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing on Monday, adding that it will take place “in the second half of the day.”
US held ‘productive’ talks with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida
US and Ukrainian negotiators held what both sides called “productive” talks in Florida over the weekend, though no details regarding the revised peace plan for Ukraine have yet been made public, FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.
He highlights the two main sticking points in the original proposition, involving security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial concessions to Russia.
“The feeling in Ukraine is that the positions are not reconcilable and that the Russians don’t really want peace,” adds Cragg, reporting from Kyiv.
Coming week could be ‘pivotal’ for Ukraine diplomacy, says EU’s Kallas
This week could be crucial for the push to end the Ukraine war as US representatives head to Moscow after talks with Kyiv’s negotiators, says EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
“It could be a pivotal week for diplomacy. We heard yesterday that the talks in America were difficult but productive. We don’t know the results yet, but I will talk to the defence minister of Ukraine as well as foreign minister of Ukraine today,” Kallas said at a meeting of EU defence ministers.
Show of support: Macron hosts ‘beleaguered’ Zelensky in Paris
After just two weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is back in Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron today.
The French leadership aims to “show support for the beleaguered Ukrainian president, who is facing a corruption scandal back home,” says FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent.
A look at how the war crushed a cohort of young Ukrainians
Pavlo Broshkov had high hopes when he joined the Ukrainian army in March as a fresh-faced recruit eager to defend his country and earn a bumper bonus to buy a home for his wife and baby daughter.
Three months later, the 20-year-old lay broken and prone on the battlefield, his dreams in tatters.
“I understood this was the moment I would be torn to pieces,” he told Reuters. “I was not afraid of death. I was afraid of not seeing my wife and child again.”
Broshkov is among hundreds of 18 to 24-year-olds who have volunteered to fight on the front lines this year, lured by generous pay and perks in a national youth recruitment drive designed to breathe fresh life into Ukraine’s aged and exhausted armed forces of about one million.
Ukraine is gradually losing territory to Russian troops in fierce and attritional fighting in the east, with commanders and soldiers complaining that the shortage of soldiers is the main factor behind the setbacks. The strains pile pressure on Kyiv as it negotiates with the United States over a peace proposal.
Reuters tracked the fortunes of Broshkov and 10 of his comrades who were among a few dozen raw recruits that received a crash-course in warfare at a military training camp in spring before being deployed to the front.
None of the 11 are still fighting. Four have been wounded, three are missing in action, two are absent without leave (AWOL), one fell sick and another recruit has killed himself, according to interviews with soldiers, their relatives and government records.
The fates of the soldiers provide a snapshot of the carnage wrought on Ukraine by the grinding war against Russia, in which both sides closely guard casualty figures.
Zelensky meets Macron to shore up support for Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, seeking to shore up European support as US President Donald Trump expressed optimism of a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
US and Ukrainian negotiators held hours of what both sides called “productive” talks in Florida on Sunday on a plan Washington wants to form the basis of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The diplomatic flurry after nearly four years of conflict comes as Kyiv battles military pressure and reels from a domestic corruption scandal that forced Zelensky to remove his close aide and top negotiator.
The Ukrainian leader has been a regular visitor to Paris since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 – this latest visit due to get under way at 10:00 am (0900 GMT).
Trump optimistic after Ukraine talks as Rubio says ‘more work’ needed
US President Donald Trump said Sunday there was a “good chance” of a deal to end the war in Ukraine after the latest US negotiations with Kyiv, as his envoy prepares to travel to Russia for follow-up talks.
After hours of what both sides called “productive” discussions in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that more work was required, and a source in Kyiv’s delegation characterized the discussions as “not easy.”
The talks, which come as Kyiv battles military pressure and reels from a domestic corruption scandal, set the stage for a visit to Moscow by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Washington has put forward a plan to end the nearly four-year conflict and is seeking to finalize it with Moscow and Kyiv’s approval.