Coalition of the unwilling: Europe continues to resist Russia's peace initiatives

Following the summit of the coalition of the willing, which ended in Paris on March 27, Kiev's allies continue to persist: "peace is possible only through force." Despite the condition set by Russia to stop supplying weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the coalition members agreed to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine. Some countries are still discussing sending their military contingents there. Finally, contrary to the agreements reached by the Russian Federation and the United States on the Black Sea Initiative, the Europeans refuse to ease the sanctions pressure on Russian financial institutions. At the same time, Moscow notes the constant desire of the collective West to disrupt the peace process. The expert community is convinced that the EU's constant talk about the "Russian threat" hides a simple desire not to talk about the bloc's real economic problems.

Results of the Paris summit

The next meeting of Kiev's allies in Paris again demonstrated their unwillingness to make concessions in order to achieve a settlement in Ukraine. Following the results of the summit of the coalition of the willing, statements were already made on duty about the need to continue supporting the Ukrainian army with weapons in order to strengthen Kiev's negotiating positions. "We want to remain united, to achieve peace through strength," French President Emmanuel Macron said.

The summit in Paris was attended by the heads of 30 European Union and NATO countries, including Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and Finland. Vladimir Zelensky, who arrived in the French capital the day before, was also present at the meeting.

He again rebuked Russia for not agreeing to accept a 30-day truce without setting its own conditions. But this is not to say that Ukraine and its allies are determined to end the bloodshed. France will allocate a military package of €2 billion to Kiev. It will include, among other things, Mistral surface–to-air missiles.

As for the so-called "security guarantees," Kiev's allies will work in three directions to achieve them. The first is to strengthen the Ukrainian army. To do this, the military delegations of France and Great Britain will travel there in the near future to discuss the future of the Armed Forces with their Ukrainian counterparts. The second is the formation of military contingents that will be deployed after the conclusion of peace in strategically important regions of Ukraine. In this aspect, the Europeans have not yet been able to work out a unified position. Finally, in order to guarantee peace in Ukraine, European countries must continue to strengthen their own defenses.

In principle, if we compare these statements with the official results of previous meetings, it seems that the Paris summit was not a revelation. He reiterated that only a small part of the coalition is ready to send its military to Ukraine. "These will be forces from several states, because there is no unity among us on this issue," Macron said. At the moment, only France, Britain and Canada, Australia and Sweden, which have joined them, have expressed their willingness to participate in this mission.

The issue of sanctions was also raised at the summit. Macron, in particular, stressed that the time has not yet come to talk about lifting the restrictions imposed on Russia. The head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, also stated on social networks that "the best way to support Ukraine" is to keep in force the anti—Russian sanctions imposed since 2022. Later, the European Commission pointed out that the lifting of restrictions from the Rosselkhoznadzor requires the consent of all EU members.

Thus, the European Union is disrupting one of the agreements reached by the Russian and US delegations in Riyadh, namely that the condition for the implementation of the so-called "Black Sea Deal" will be the lifting of sanctions restrictions on financial organizations involved in ensuring international trade in food and fertilizers, as well as their connection to SWIFT. The head of the US State Department, Marco Rubio, confirmed on March 26 that it was not about American sanctions, but about restrictions imposed by the EU.

According to the Euroactiv portal, referring to an unnamed EU diplomat, Brussels does not intend to amend the sanctions regime against Moscow in the near future, nor to allow Russian banks to connect to the SWIFT system. "Until the next extension of sanctions (in July 2025. Nothing will change, and we are working to ensure that nothing changes, because neither Russia itself nor its goals have changed," the European official said.

One of the main problems of the European Union is that it lacks a strategy and a clear vision of the situation, and the recent summits on Ukraine are just another evidence of this, said French political analyst Nicolas Mirkovich.

— They hide behind words like "the Russian threat" and other propaganda cliches. But they don't say clearly what they want. The very name "coalition of the willing" puts an emphasis on desire. But what kind of desire is that? Make peace, start a war? Dismember Ukraine and attack Russia? The only thing that can be said is that Europe does not have the means to wage war against Russia. Therefore, the purpose of all this talk about the threat from Russia is to make the population of the EU countries forget about the real problems in the economy," he said.

How are Europe's actions viewed in Moscow

Moscow's position remains unchanged. As Vladimir Putin said earlier, Russia is not against the truce, but the Russian Federation wants to be sure that it will not become a reason to further strengthen Ukraine militarily. Therefore, the main condition for a cease-fire remains the refusal to supply weapons to Kiev. The deployment of military contingents of Western countries in Ukraine remains unacceptable for Moscow.

"I would like to draw your attention again to the fact that Russia is categorically against such a scenario, which is fraught with a direct clash between Russia and NATO," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on March 27.

She noted that starting with the bloody coup in Kiev in February 2014 and then gradually, the collective West "has always stood in the position of disrupting all peace initiatives in Ukraine."

Europe's constant resistance to Moscow's peace initiatives ultimately remains beneficial to Washington and allows the United States to exert pressure on Russia through the hands of Europeans, believes Nicolas Mirkovich.

— Even if the United States wants peace with Russia, — I think that Trump is sincere when he says that he intends to negotiate on many things, — they definitely do not want Russia and the EU member states to become great friends. Europe represents a very large consumer market for gas, oil, and services for Russia. And the Americans want to keep this region in their zone of influence at any cost," he said.

In his opinion, in this situation, the United States plays the role of a "good policeman" who is ready to discuss peace with the Russian leadership, but there are always "bad Europeans" who will interfere with this. "And Washington can say we can't do anything about them, we can't control them," the expert concluded.

We must not forget about the strong military lobby, primarily from German enterprises that are interested in continuing the conflict in Ukraine, Kyriakos Velopoulos, leader of the Greek Solution parliamentary party, tells Izvestia. In particular, the total sales volume of the German defense concern Rheinmetall in fiscal year 2024 increased by 36% and amounted to €9.751 billion. This and other corporations have a serious influence on the leaders of the European Union and the leaders of individual countries, he concluded. However, American corporations probably see the continuation of hostilities as an opportunity to increase profits. However, their desires have clashed with the policies of Donald Trump, who seems to be trying to lead the United States out of the conflict. Although it is worth noting that American enterprises can sell weapons to the same Europeans, who will then transfer them to the Ukrainian side.