World News Actuality Presented By Claire Evren French President Emmanuel Macron said peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine are at a “crucial juncture” and urged the importance of “robust security guarantees” for Kyiv.

World News Actuality Presented By Claire Evren

French President Emmanuel Macron said peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine are at a “crucial juncture” and urged the importance of “robust security guarantees” for Kyiv.

The White House said further talks are required between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, as it works to reach an agreement to end the war.

President Donald Trump has said he will only meet with Putin and Zelensky over a proposed peace deal when it reaches its “final stages”.

“Over the past week, the United States has made tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table. There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X.

Ukraine has agreed to the US proposal to end the war with Russia with only “minor details” outstanding, a US official said, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more work needed to be done.

“Negotiations are getting a new impetus and we should seize this momentum, not because there is reason for alarm – Ukraine is solid, Russia is slow, and Europe is steadfast – but because there is finally a chance to make real progress toward a good peace,” Macron said Tuesday at the start of a virtual ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting, attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other world leaders including those of the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia.

Macron went on to say that “the absolute condition for a good peace is a set of very robust security guarantees and not paper guarantees.”

Dan Driscoll, the US army secretary, has been meeting with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi. His spokesman said talks were going “well”. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, also travelled to the talks in a rare trip outside of his country, according to reports.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, told a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing that talks over a peace deal were “moving in a positive direction”. Earlier, his spokesman confirmed Britain was still preparing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

The original US-drafted proposal to end the war included many ideas that have previously been put forward and rejected in earlier peace negotiations.

It put pressure on Kyiv to cede territory, limit the size of its military and promise not to join NATO in exchange for an end to the war, all long-standing Kremlin demands as Putin presses forward with his maximalist war aims.

The US proposal called for Ukraine to surrender key territories in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine that Russia has illegally annexed but not captured – a longstanding red line for Kyiv. That area includes the “fortress belt” of heavily defended Ukrainian towns and cities, which are seen as essential for the country’s security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously rejected Russia’s calls for Ukraine to surrender the eastern Donbas region in exchange for some Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The European Union also laid out three of its red lines on Sunday.

First, Ukraine’s “borders cannot be changed by force,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, as top US and European officials held talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Second, as a sovereign nation, there cannot be limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attack and thereby also undermining European security,” von der Leyen added.

“Third, the centrality of the European Union in securing peace for Ukraine must be fully reflected. Ukraine must have the freedom and sovereign right to choose its own destiny. They have chosen a European destiny,” the EU chief concluded, adding that starts with Ukraine’s reconstruction and integration into Europe’s single market and defense industrial base.