<picture class="article__media"> <img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2025/02/18/0/0/5000/4000/664/0/75/0/30cb125_sirius-fs-upload-1-lo2th0lbz2nj-1739843399070-kzihnioglu-paris-pol-elysee-20250217-archive-93.JPG" alt="Images Le Monde.fr" width="100%" height="auto"> </picture> <noscript> <img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2025/02/18/0/0/5000/4000/664/0/75/0/30cb125_sirius-fs-upload-1-lo2th0lbz2nj-1739843399070-kzihnioglu-paris-pol-elysee-20250217-archive-93.JPG" alt="Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace, at the end of a meeting on the situation in Ukraine and European security issues, Paris, February 17, 2025."> </noscript> <figcaption class="article__legend" aria-hidden="true">Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace, at the end of a meeting on the situation in Ukraine and European security issues, Paris, February 17, 2025. KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU FOR&nbsp;LE MONDE </figcaption>

While the US and Russian foreign ministers, Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/18/us-russia-talks-begin-in-saudi-with-no-seat-for-ukraine_6738283_4.html">are meeting in Riyadh</a>, on Tuesday, February 18, to begin the "normalization" of their relations, European leaders <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2025/02/17/any-talk-of-sending-peacekeepers-to-ukraine-now-highly-inappropriate-scholz_6738265_143.html">failed to demonstrate their unity</a> at the Elysée Palace on Monday. Nevertheless, they still hope to play a role in the upcoming negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, despite Washington's and Moscow's signals to the contrary.

<div class="catcher__content">Read more Subscribers only <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/17/the-week-the-us-shook-europe-s-world_6738249_4.html" class="js-article-read-also catcher--favoris__link" data-premium="1">The week the US shook Europe's world</a> </div>

After more than three hours of discussions, Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the mini-summit attended by eight European leaders and the heads of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union bodies, refrained from attempting to summarize the content of the debates at the end of the meeting. Some of his guests, such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, were not much more talkative. Late in the evening, the French president simply announced, on X, that, after the talks, he had spoken with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, calling for "strong and credible guarantees" for Kyiv.

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Emmanuel Macron brought together eight European leaders and the heads of NATO and EU bodies in a mini-summit at the Elysée on Monday, less than a week after Washington and Moscow agreed to begin 'immediate' negotiations to end the conflict.{ai:summary}European leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, met to discuss the Ukraine conflict and European security but struggled to present a united front. Despite U.S. and Russian foreign ministers meeting to normalize relations, Europe hopes to influence upcoming negotiations to end the war.Macron emphasized the need for "strong and credible guarantees" for Ukraine after discussions with other leaders, including Germany's Olaf Scholz and the UK's Keir Starmer. The meeting highlighted Europe's desire to remain relevant in the diplomatic landscape. #foreignaffairs