Ukraine: 'Coalition of the Willing' meets in Paris as Trump says Putin not ready for peace

France's Macron is hosting Ukraine's Zelenskyy in Paris with hopes he will underwrite "security guarantees" in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.

With the United States seemingly content to take a back seat, a high-level meeting in Paris on Thursday will seek to answer the question: Can European powers step up and bring Ukraine and Russia closer to peace?

An actual halt in fighting seems an increasingly distant ambition, with President Donald Trump — who will call into the meeting in the French capital — conceding that while he remained hopeful of progress, the two sides were clearly “not ready yet” to make a deal.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to Beijing on Wednesday that he will end the war by force if Ukraine does not agree to his demands. He suggested he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only in Moscow.

With Trump adopting a lesser role after his peace push stalled, European powers are hoping to plug the diplomatic gap.

They met in Paris early Thursday as part of the informal “Coalition of the Willing” — nations that say they are prepared to underwrite the “security guarantees” Ukraine says it needs to be confident any future ceasefire would hold.