‘Combat meeting’ mulls boost for Ukraine

EU explores using Russian profits to rebuild Ukraine and beefing up Ukrainian forces with Western troops

Ukraine’s allies attending a security conference in Paris described as a “combat meeting” are mulling the seizure of Russian profits in the European Union and beefing up Kyiv’s forces with foreign troops.

While there was “no consensus” on the sending of Western ground troops to Ukraine, “nothing should be excluded. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday at the meeting at the Elysee Palace of two dozen European leaders to discuss military aid to Ukraine.

The statement seems to confirm Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s earlier hint that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and EU member states want to send their troops to Ukraine.

Such a decision would lead to “an enormous escalation of tension,” Fico warned states participating in the “combat meeting.”

Fico has previously questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty and called for a compromise with Russia.

The day after he was sworn into office in October, Fico announced a halt to all Slovakian military aid to Ukraine.

“The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” he said.

Western officials acknowledge that Russia risks gaining the upper hand in the conflict this year as Ukraine runs out of weapons and ammunition.

Macron said at the conference that a new coalition would be set up to supply Ukraine with “missiles and bombs of medium and long range to carry out deep strikes.”

Western officials acknowledge that Russia risks gaining the upper hand in the conflict this year.

“Nothing can be excluded to achieve our objective. Russia cannot win that war,” he said.

Czech Premier Petr Fiala meanwhile said there was “great support” for an initiative to help Ukraine buy munitions outside the EU. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country would contribute and others would follow.

The conference signalled Macron’s eagerness to present himself as a European champion of Ukraine’s cause, amid growing fears that United States support could wane in the coming months.

“Together we must ensure that Putin cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a brief video message to the conference.

Seizing Russian profits

Meanwhile, Spiros Lampridis, Greece’s special national envoy for Ukraine, said the Europeans were coming to consensus on a more “subtle” approach of seizing profits from Russian investments and assets, either public or private, to set up a fund for Ukraine.

The Europeans will tell Russia “I’m not going to allow you to make profits on the capital you have accumulated on my soil, so the profits of that can be confiscated,” Lampridis told Agence France-Presse on a visit to Washington.

“We’re about to do it. I think it’s a question of months,” he said, adding that the European Commission was working out legal and practical implementation.

The Group of Seven industrialized democracies, in a weekend statement marking two years since the invasion, called for “all possible avenues” to use Russian assets to support Ukraine “consistent with our respective legal systems and international law.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in an opinion piece in the Sunday Times, called for the West to “be bolder” and start by taking interest from Russian assets before finding “lawful ways to seize the assets themselves.”