French President Emmanuel Macron will host a conference of European leaders on February 26 aimed at boosting Western support for Ukraine amid growing concerns that support for Kiev is waning two years after its fight against Russia began.
The Elysee Palace meeting will be an opportunity for participants to "reaffirm their unity as well as their determination to defeat the war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine," the French presidency said on Sunday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda will be among around 20 European heads of state and government attending the conference, which will be opened with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Other countries will be represented at the ministerial level, and Foreign Minister David Cameron will travel to Paris for Great Britain.
The United States and Canada will be represented by senior diplomats, but almost all participants are from Europe, with no indication of Chinese or Indian representation.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose government is seen as more favorable to Russia, will also attend.
According to the French presidency, the meeting will aim to "examine all means of effective support to Ukraine".
Western officials admit that Russia risks gaining the upper hand in the conflict in 2024 when Ukraine runs out of weapons and ammunition.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on December 25 that half of the Western military aid promised to Kiev had been delivered late, lamenting that "commitment does not mean delivery".
A representative of the French president, who asked not to be named, said the meeting should dispel any "impression that things are falling apart" after Ukraine's failures on the battlefield.
"We want to send a clear message to Putin that he will not prevail in Ukraine," the official said. Even if no new aid announcements are planned, participants will explore ways to "do better and more decisively".
For Macron, who even before the Russian invasion preached the need for Europe to find strategic autonomy in security matters, the conference is a vital chance to show that Europe can be more autonomous in this regard.
Doubts are growing about the viability of long-term US support for Ukraine as the new aid package struggles to find legislative approval and Donald Trump seeks to return to the presidency in elections later this year./BGNES
