Macron hosts ceasefire talks with US, European and Ukrainian officials

France hosted high-level talks Thursday to discuss Ukraine and its security, the first time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration that top American, Ukrainian and European officials are known to have met together to discuss an end to the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff joined other top Ukrainian and European officials for hours of separate meetings at the French presidential palace before French President Emmanuel Macron brought them all together for a final round of talks at the end of the day in Paris.Macron described the talks as an important “convergence.” France announced that talks in the same format would continue in London next week.
Rubio wrote on X that the American delegation in Paris was looking to “secure real, practical solutions to end the Russia-Ukraine war.” Rubio also spoke by phone Thursday with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, conveying the same message he gave the delegations in Paris, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “President Trump and the United States want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace,” the statement says. “ The encouraging reception in Paris to the U.S. framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov were also in Paris to talk with European and US delegations. Britain and Germany's national security advisors were also  in Paris, the French presidency said. Earlier Thursday, Zelensky urged the allies meeting in Paris to lean on Russia to agree to a ceasefire. "Russia uses every day and every night to kill. We must put pressure on the killers," he said on Telegram.Zelensky also said Ukraine had "finally" received information that China was supplying weapons to Russia. And he accused Witkoff of "spreading Russian narratives" after the US envoy suggested a peace deal with Russia hinged on the status of Ukraine's occupied territories.