European leaders gather for a photo during a summit Thursday hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool/Reuters)
BRUSSELS — In rejecting Russia’s demand to lift Western sanctions in exchange for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, European leaders are showing they could still be players in Washington’s talks.
Europe is seeking to retain its leverage as President Donald Trump moves to strike a deal with Russia to stop the war in Ukraine. But some of Russia’s key demands — including sanctions relief and the end of military aid to Ukraine — require European buy-in.
Still, the European campaign for a postwar force in Ukraine has yielded mixed results. As London and Paris forge ahead with military plans, their efforts have met reluctance from other European powers to commit troops in the absence of U.S. promises of support.
European officials have been more assertive on sanctions, which have emerged as a sticking point in the U.S. push to expand a fragile, limited ceasefire in Ukraine to the Black Sea. The Kremlin last week conditioned such a ceasefire on the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia.
For the Europeans, French President Emmanuel Macron said this is “not the time” to lift sanctions. Speaking after he hosted around 30 leaders in Paris on Thursday, he said it won’t be time until “peace is clearly established.”
Europe is unified on sanctions
European officials accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of stalling on a ceasefire to extract concessions and to drive a deeper wedge between Europe and the Trump administration in talks that could reshape the continent’s security.
Europe controls sanctions that Russia wants lifted and which exclude it from the Belgium-based SWIFT payment system. That measure and others are reviewed by the European Union every six months and require the consent of the bloc’s 27 members to be renewed.
European leaders have held firm so far. As one official put it, if the Kremlin wants to talk sanctions, “everyone will have to talk to us.” But diplomats are wary of being cast as blocking negotiations if the Trump team wavers on sanctions. That could put them on a collision course when they’re already clashing over trade and defense.
European leaders have turned to a favorite mantra of Trump’s, “peace through strength.” Macron said Thursday that doesn’t mean “starting by lifting sanctions.” He said they would continue “conveying our vision” in dialogue with the United States, and that “we must be able to defend our interests.”
Many here are doubtful that a lasting ceasefire will be reached soon, said a second European official who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Some diplomats describe the European planning, including to send troops to Ukraine, as an exercise in preparation and leverage.
European officials concede that easing sanctions will be part of negotiations, though in their vision, a temporary ceasefire should be holding first. The talks could then turn to questions such as sanctions, leading eventually to a settlement that gives Ukraine a deterrent against another Russian invasion.
Vision evolves of a deterrent force after the war
The bulwark for a postwar Ukraine, France and Britain say, could be a deployment of the European “coalition of the willing” to help safeguard Ukrainian cities and key sites away from the front line, and to provide logistical support or training to the Ukrainian army.
The countries plan to send a military team to Ukraine in the coming weeks to determine how many troops would be needed for this “reassurance force,” and where they should be stationed. And they will confer with Ukraine on beefing up its army to hold a future front line.
The European focus has also shifted to air and sea power, two diplomats said, as army chiefs point out the limitations of a large troop deployment, and as other countries propose their capabilities for patrols in Ukraine’s skies or in the Black Sea.
Military planners from dozens of countries were “coming forward with contributions on everything from logistics and command and control, to deployments on land, air and sea,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
Still, hours of negotiations have yielded no public commitment from other European leaders, amid skepticism that the U.S. has any interest in backing such a force.
Some countries have balked at the idea of deploying forces without a U.S. promise to step in if Russia attacks them. European officials also hope for U.S. capabilities such as air defenses, intelligence and heavy airlift.
“My wish is that the Americans are engaged at our side,” Macron told reporters. “But we have to be prepared for a situation in which they maybe don’t join in. … We can’t say that if the Americans don’t join us, we won’t do anything.”
Trump has offered no promises. Officials in his team give mixed signals even in private, European diplomats say. Trump Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has played a key role in negotiations with Russia, recently described the initiative as “simplistic.”
But a French official said Trump has not excluded U.S. backing, and that efforts were being done “in perfect harmony with our Americans partners, who are interested in this approach and have told us it’s a good one.”
Russia warns against European troops in Ukraine
“In theory,” European troops could be dispatched regardless of whether that’s agreed in U.S.-Russia talks, said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group consultancy, in an analysis note. “But in practice, such a force would scare or reassure no one without a U.S. guarantee.”
Monitoring a ceasefire would fall to satellite observation, U.N. peacekeepers or other monitors, which could include countries that Russia sees as neutral, officials said. That peacekeeping job would not be up to the European force, which could be stationed around nuclear sites, military bases or government headquarters.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned the French-British plans “could lead to a direct clash” between Russia and the NATO alliance.
Macron and Starmer say it’s not up to Russia to veto European deployments to Ukraine. The French president has pledged that any troops sent to Ukraine would not cause a reduction of forces in Eastern Europe — where countries near Russia’s borders worry that a deployment could stretch their own defenses. Some, such as Poland, have said they would provide logistical backup instead of their own forces.
Others are also swayed by politics at home. Germany has been hesitant to commit troops but its position is uncertain, as leaders pursue talks to form a new government. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, under pressure from her government partners, has opposed sending soldiers.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe, said a force would need a clearly defined mission “before anybody talks about numbers of troops.” That includes a unified command, he said, and consensus on how to respond to attacks.
“If they’re there to deter Russia from violating a ceasefire, if there’s ever a real ceasefire that’s put in place, then they have to be able to do things,” he said. “The Russians would probably be reluctant to launch missiles at a city if they knew there were French troops there, for example, but they will test them.”
Anthony Faiola in Rome and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.