Macron unveils Ukraine plan: weeks of talks, air-sea-energy truce, and peacekeeper deployment

The article was published on the outlet’s website on Sunday evening, March 2, 2025, following the London Security Summit, where countries including Canada and Turkey discussed the defense of European nations and further assistance to Ukraine amid shifts in U.S. foreign policy. According to the authors, the conversation with Macron took place before his departure for the summit. Key points from the interview were later shared by FranceInfo, a public broadcasting portal.

One-month halt in air, sea, and energy attacks — but not ground fighting

Macron specifically proposed the possibility of a “ceasefire in the air, at sea, and on energy infrastructure” lasting for one month. He argued that the advantage of this initial phase is its ease of monitoring, unlike the complex situation on the ground along a vast front spanning a distance equivalent to that from Paris to Budapest.

When to deploy peacekeeping forces

Macron suggested that European soldiers — specifically European peacekeepers, as the new U.S. administration has already declined to participate in such a military mission — could be deployed to Ukraine in the second phase to ensure an effective ceasefire on the front. However, he emphasized that this would not happen immediately.

Read also: Europe must urgently rearm, prepare for the worst and turn Ukraine into a “steel porcupine” — Von der Leyen

“In the coming weeks, there will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil. The question is how we will use this time to try to reach an affordable ceasefire, with negotiations that will last for several weeks, and then, when the peace is signed, the deployment (of a peacekeeping contingent - ed.),” the French president describes his plan.

“The coming weeks will see no European troops on Ukrainian soil. The question is how we will use this time to work toward a feasible ceasefire, through negotiations that will take several weeks. Once peace is signed, the deployment [of a peacekeeping contingent] will follow,” the French president outlined his plan.

London’s response

Macron has not yet spoken to the press following the London summit, but only posted a short message on social media. 

Kyiv's allies “are all determined to take action for a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine and to ensure our collective security,” he wrote on Instagram, without going into details of the peace plan he said in an interview with Le Figaro that he was preparing with the UK and Ukraine.

• Summarizing the London summit, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said that he and Macron were developing their own alternative plan to the American one to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war.