Europe's Ukraine plan: Starmer, Macron, von der Leyen, Tusk & Meloni unveil bold push to crush Putin's war
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron led calls for heightened pressure on Moscow through new sanctions and coordinated support.
'We should shift our work for preparing for peace, making it happen by forcing Putin to the table… this coordinated pressure will make a difference,' Starmer said.
He revealed that European peacekeeping plans are 'mature' and backed by months of preparation, while Macron added they are 'ready to go' once a ceasefire is in place.
Starmer announced that the 'Coalition of the Willing,' a multinational alliance now joined by the US, has agreed on post-ceasefire operations to support Ukraine's security.
'We announced plans for a new multinational force Ukraine headquartered in Paris, so that we are ready to support a peace deal when it comes,' Starmer said.
The headquarters will rotate to London after a year, with plans to: Rebuild Ukraine's land forces
Support air policing with coalition aircraft
Secure the Black Sea
In the short term, the coalition vowed to prioritise defending Ukraine's critical infrastructure from relentless Russian strikes.
'In the coming days and weeks, we will step up our support… through crippling sanctions and ensuring Ukraine's Armed Forces have the equipment they need,' Starmer added.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk delivered a stark warning: 'This is not a war just about Ukraine, but a war about Europe… or perhaps even about the world,' he said.
'This is a war between civilisation and barbarism.'
Tusk called Ukraine an inspiration to the world and a frontline innovator in defense, especially drone and autonomous tech, adding that NATO has much to learn.
'There will be no recovery without victory,' he said. 'Our consciences cannot rest while Putin attacks civilians, night after night.'
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged enduring support: 'We will be on your side for as long as it takes,' she told Ukrainian leaders. €4 billion in new grants
A flagship equity reconstruction fund, the world's largest of its kind, backed by the EU, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, and the EIB
New support for Ukraine's EU accession, saying the EU is ready to 'open cluster one' of negotiations
'The future has two flags: the flag of Ukraine and the flag of Europe,' von der Leyen declared.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz affirmed full support for Ukraine's EU ambitions and likened its recovery to Europe's post-WWII rebirth: 'Some of the recipes that were applied back then can still serve us when we focus on Ukraine's recovery today,' he said.
He also pledged deeper industrial and defense cooperation, including investment in Ukraine's energy and business development sectors.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned that Russia is intensifying attacks on civilians but praised Ukraine's resilience: 'Our task is to help Ukraine. We will do it, to rewrite this new chapter of its history,' she said.
Meloni announced new reconstruction contracts with Italian companies like Enel and Leonardo, and urged businesses: 'Do not be scared of investing in Ukraine… It is an investment in peace, and in the growth of Europe as a whole.'
In a rare direct appeal, Merz also addressed US President Donald Trump, urging continued American support: 'We are on the same page, and we are looking for a stable political order in this world. Stay with us, on this side and on this page of our common history.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
6 minutes ago
- India.com
Head Of North Koreas Assembly Holds Talks Wh Russia, Three Other Nations In Geneva
Pak In-chol, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, has held talks with his counterparts from Russia and three other countries in Geneva, Switzerland, on the sidelines of a global meeting of assembly chiefs, state media reported Sunday. Pak met with the chairperson of Russia's Federation Council, as well as the heads of the Mongolian and Vietnamese assemblies and a deputy chairperson of the Lao parliament, during his attendance at the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament from last Tuesday to Thursday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. During her talks with Pak, Valentina Matvienko, the Russian parliamentary speaker, cited the "close friendship" between the North Korean and Russian leaders as the "fundamental element" that has elevated bilateral ties to their highest level in history, the KCNA reported. The agency also quoted her as saying that Russia-North Korea ties "have overcome all kinds of challenges and proved their value since the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty." She also reaffirmed Russia's solidarity with North Korea. China's top legislator Zhao Leji also attended the global event, but no talks took place between him and Pak, a possible sign that bilateral ties have yet to fully recover after being strained by Pyongyang's close alignment with Russia over the war with Ukraine, Yonhap news agency reported. The international event has been hosted every five years since 2000 by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of national parliaments, with North Korea consistently dispatching a representative. South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik also attended this year's event, but no meeting took place between him and Pak either.
Economic Times
21 minutes ago
- Economic Times
US envoy Steve Witkoff meets Israeli hostage families in Tel Aviv
Synopsis US envoy Steve Witkoff met with families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, facing mounting fears for their survival nearly two years after the Hamas attack. Families pleaded for assistance, urging for the hostages' return. Amidst ceasefire talks and international pressure, Hamas released a video of a hostage, intensifying concerns as the conflict continues with dire humanitarian consequences in Gaza. AP White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, centre, arrives to meet families of hostages at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. ( AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) US envoy Steve Witkoff met anguished relatives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza on Saturday, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the shared online showed him arriving to meet the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, as families chanted "Bring them home!" and "We need your help."The meeting came one day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory."The war needs to end," Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP. "The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so," he added."The Israeli government must be stopped. For our sakes, for our soldiers' sakes, for our hostages' sakes, for our sons and for the future generations of everybody in the Middle East."Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages.- 'Horrifying acts' -Hamas attempted to maintain pressure on the families, on Friday releasing a video of one of the hostages -- 24-year-old Evyatar David -- for the second time in two days, showing him looking emaciated in a video called for a ceasefire and warned that time was running out for the hostages. David's family said their son was the victim of a "vile" propaganda campaign and accused Hamas of deliberately starving their son."The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen. He is being starved purely to serve Hamas's propaganda," the family said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Saturday also denounced the video, and one released a day earlier by another Palestinian Islamist group, as "despicable"."They must be freed, without conditions," he posted on X. "Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from ruling Gaza."The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more talks broke down last month and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive and is also facing international calls to open Gaza's borders to more food aid, after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation.- 'Without rest' -Israel's top general warned that there would be no respite in fighting if the hostages were not released."I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages," armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement."If not, the combat will continue without rest."Zamir denied that there was widespread starvation in Gaza. "The current campaign of false accusations of intentional starvation is a deliberate, timed, and deceitful attempt to accuse the IDF (Israeli military), a moral army, of war crimes," he reports from UN-mandated experts warning a "famine is unfolding" in Gaza, more and more evidence is emerging of serious malnutrition and deaths among the most vulnerable Palestinian Dawwas, 33, living in a displacement camp in Gaza City told AFP her daughter Mariam had no known illnesses before the war but had now dropped from 25 kilograms (four stone) to 10 (around one and half stone) and was seriously malnourished. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a post on X early Sunday that one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Yunis headquarters in civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 34 people in the territory on people were killed in an Israeli strike on an area of central Gaza where Palestinians were awaiting food distribution by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal GHF has largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, just as Israel in late May began easing a more than two-month aid blockade that exacerbated existing UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza were killed since May 27, adding that most of them were killed near GHF sites, and by the Israeli military.
New Indian Express
36 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Trump's claim on Russian crude rubbished
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had heard about India stopping purchasing Russian crude, adding it would be a good step, a claim the government denied. Trump made the remark after announcing 25% reciprocal tariff on Indian imports, along with additional penalties linked to Russian crude imports. 'I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia. That's what I heard, I don't know if that's right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens,' Trump said. The petroleum ministry, however, clarified that India has not stopped importing Russian crude. A ministry official said Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) continue to buy Russian oil, with supply decisions based on factors such as price, crude grade, inventories, logistics, and other economic considerations. 'These are long-term oil contracts. It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight,' the official said. The official also emphasised that Indian OMCs do not import crude from Iran or Venezuela — both sanctioned by the US. Russian oil, however, is not sanctioned by the US or the EU. Instead, it is subject to the G7-EU price-cap mechanism, which aims to restrict Russia's revenue while ensuring global oil supplies continue. India has consistently complied with the US-recommended price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil. Recently, the EU proposed a lower price cap of $47.6 per barrel, to be enforced from September. The official said India's purchases remain legitimate and fully within international frameworks.
