PARIS — European leaders began meeting Tuesday in Paris for the latest round of talks on peace for Ukraine, focusing on security commitments for the country in a potential ceasefire with Russia.

National leaders and representatives of 35 countries have gathered at the Élysée Palace for the meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing to also discuss how a potential ceasefire would be monitored, and what steps they would commit to take if Russia breached it.

Among the expected attendees were President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The French hosts took their presence as a sign of a U.S. commitment to a Ukraine security plan, after a tumultuous year in which Trump proved fickle and at times even hostile to Europe and Ukraine.

The presence of Trump administration advisers is complicated somewhat by the U.S. military raid on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s former authoritarian leader. Ukrainians have been divided about whether to celebrate his apprehension because he is an ally of Russia or to condemn the military intervention.

Russia is not involved in the negotiations, and any ceasefire appears remote for now. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has expressed more skepticism about the peace talks in recent days. “I understand that we are very close to results, but at some point, Russia may block everything,” he has said.

Tuesday’s meeting comes 11 months after President Emmanuel Macron of France hastily organized European leaders in response to Trump’s signals that he could withdraw U.S. support for Ukraine while engaging with Russia, leaving Europeans — who view the war on their Continent as an existential threat — on the sidelines.

Since then, Europeans leaders and their military chiefs have met many times, working toward a plan to help Ukraine secure any ceasefire or peace with Russia. They have discussed financially and militarily supporting the Ukrainian army and, in some cases, supplying their own troops to Ukraine to help deter a Russian attack. Zelenskyy and other European leaders have also worked feverishly to bring Trump on board.

Efforts Bumpy

Their efforts have been bumpy. In November, the U.S. backed a peace plan that seemed torn from the Russian wish list. It required Ukraine to cede territory, restrict the size of its military and rule out NATO membership, while Russian was not required to make many concessions.

After another flurry of meetings among the Coalition of the Willing members, a new 20-point plan emerged, more in line with Ukrainian and European demands. Zelenskyy presented the plan to Trump in December, and after two recent meetings at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the Ukrainian leader declared the plan was “nearly complete,” although some of the thorniest issues were unresolved.

Trump, who has stated many times that a peace deal was around the corner, was more circumspect. “It’s possible it doesn’t happen,” he said at the time. “In a few weeks, we’ll know one way or another.”

Macron hopes Tuesday’s discussions will push the process forward and result in some concrete commitments to support a ceasefire in Ukraine, eventually backed by formal accords.

Zelenskyy said following a bilateral meeting with Macron on Tuesday that the two leaders had discussed bolstering Ukraine’s military defenses. “Diplomacy and real assistance must go hand in hand,” he said on social media.

Also on the agenda in the group talks are technical discussions of how a potential ceasefire would be monitored, and what would define a breach of it. Given the vast border between Russia and Ukraine and the nature of modern warfare, any ceasefire is unlikely to be monitored largely by soldiers on the ground. Instead, drones and satellites will probably be enlisted.

As part of security guarantees for Ukraine, countries would commit to coordinated responses to any clear Russian breach of a ceasefire, a French diplomat said.

Among the expected attendees were 27 heads of government. They included Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, who has found herself in the crosshairs of Trump’s ambitions to take over Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory.

A few hours before the meeting began, seven of the leaders gathered in Paris, including Macron and Frederiksen, issued a joint statement about Greenland, reiterating that the future of Greenland was up to its people and the Danish government. The statement said that Arctic security was a European priority and must be decided collectively in conjunction with NATO allies, including the United States. “Greenland belongs to its people,” it said.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Catherine Porter/Tyler Hicks
c. 2026 The New York Times Company