Europe says ready to guarantee Ukraine’s security, but fails to agree on sending troops to the country. U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia conclude after over four hours. Ukraine strikes an oil refinery and two pumping stations in Russia’ Krasnodar region.
Europe says ready to guarantee Ukraine’s security, but fails to agree on sending troops to the country
Europe is ready to take a lead in providing security guarantees for Ukraine, NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte said after an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris on Monday.
“Ready and willing. That’s my take from today’s meeting in Paris. Europe is ready and willing to step up. To lead in providing security guarantees for Ukraine. Ready and willing to invest a lot more in our security,” Rutte said in a statement on X.
“The details will need to be decided but the commitment is clear,” he added.
Rutte’s statement shows that Europe is intent to bolster its role in supporting Ukraine and securing stability across the region, Ukrainian news site The New Voice of Ukraine said. The crisis summit in Paris played a role in coordinating European efforts to strengthen Ukraine and counter Russia’s aggression, it added.
A French-led effort by European leaders to present a united front on Ukraine in the face of rising fear over U.S. President Donald Trump’s intentions fizzled Monday as they failed to agree on sending troops to police a possible peace deal, according to Politico. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
After a 3.5-hour huddle at the Elysée presidential palace, the response of leaders to the biggest security calculus shift in decades was underwhelming.
Leaders came up with no new joint ideas, squabbled over sending troops to Ukraine, and once again mouthed platitudes on aiding Ukraine and boosting defense spending.
U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out both sending U.S. forces and allowing Ukraine to join NATO, meaning that any effort to prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine again would have to be borne by Europeans. The U.S. sent a questionnaire to European NATO countries asking them to spell out what they would be prepared to offer to enforce a peace agreement, as well as what they would expect from the U.S. But there was no consensus on the issue.
France, whose president first suggested the idea, and the U.K.’s Keir Starmer both support the idea, although Starmer said that could only happen if the United States also participated in any peacekeeping force. He insisted on the need for a “U.S. backstop” after peace is secured in Ukraine, in order to “deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”
But Poland, a frontline state and close ally of Ukraine, with one of the largest militaries in Europe, demurred. “We do not anticipate sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine,” Tusk said in Warsaw before flying to Paris.
“Poland simply doesn’t have the additional capacity to send troops to Ukraine,” said a senior Polish official who spoke on condition of anonymity, noting the country has long borders with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia-allied Belarus, which need to be reinforced with Polish forces. “The French are far away so they can send soldiers to Ukraine; we’re close so we cannot.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after the meeting that any debate on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine was “completely premature” and “highly inappropriate” while the war continued.
Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen said “many, many” things needed to be clarified before troops can be sent to Ukraine.
U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia conclude after over four hours
Negotiations Tuesday between Russia and the United States led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have concluded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The bilateral talks lasted about 4.5 hours and, according to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s top aide Yuri Ushakov, the negotiations were “not bad.”
“There was a very serious conversation on all the issues we wanted to raise,” Ushakov told journalists after the meeting, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
According to Ushakov, the two sides agreed to advance bilateral relations. It was hard to say that the U.S. and Russia were getting closer, but this is something that the delegations discussed during the meeting, he added.
It is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, Ushakov said, adding that it is unlikely to take place next week.
He said separate teams of Russian and U.S. negotiators will begin contacts on Ukraine “in due time”.
“The main thing is to begin a real normalization of relations between us and Washington,” Ushakov said Tuesday as he arrived in Riyadh.
“U.S. oil majors have had very successful business in Russia,” Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and member of the Russian delegation said in a brief interview on Tuesday before the talks began, offering an example of how the countries could rebuild business ties, according to The New York Times. “We believe at some point they will be coming back, because why would they forgo these opportunities that Russia gave them to have access to Russian natural resources?”
Leading Western oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, joined many other businesses in pulling out of Russia three years ago amid outrage over Mr. Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump spoke with Putin last week on energy and economic ties, according to media reports. Russia hopes the talks with Trump’s team and a Ukraine peace deal would chart a path to sanctions relief.
Ukraine strikes oil refinery, two pumping stations in Russia’ Krasnodar region
Ukraine said its forces struck on Monday the Ilsky oil refinery and two pumping stations — the Kropotkinskaya and Andreapol in Russia’ Krasnodar region.
Ukraine’s defense forces have launched a high-precision strike on Russia’s military and energy sites of strategic importance, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement Tuesday.
A massive fire erupted at the Ilsky oil refinery after the attack.
The strike also hit oil pumping stations Kropotkinskaya and Andreapol that supply fuel for the Russian army. They were out of operation, further complicating the delivery of fuel for the Russians.
“The defense forces of Ukraine reserve the right to strike strategic facilities that support Russia’s armed aggression. Operations aimed at dismantling energy infrastructure that fuel Russia’s illegal war will continue,” it said.
The Ilsky oil refinery has six oil processing systems, and the facilities can process up to 6.6 million tons of oil annually, The New Voice of Ukraine said, citing a source in the security service. Kropotkinskaya is the biggest oil pumping station in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in Russia.
