France and Great Britain are proposing a one -month truce in Ukraine “in the air, in the sea and in the energy infrastructure” after the crisis conversations in London, French president Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, AFP reported.
In an interview with the newspaper of Le Figaro in France, Macron said that such truce did not, at least at least, would not cover the land struggle.
The problem was that it would be very difficult to verify that it was respected given the size of the front line, he said.
The peace forces would be deployed at a later date, he said, added: “There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks.”
Macron also suggested that European countries should increase their defense expenditure between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP to respond to the changing priorities of Washington and Russia’s militarization.
“For three years, the Russians have spent 10 percent of their GDP in defense,” he told the newspaper. “So we have to prepare for what follows.”
In a separate interview with the newspaper Il Foglio in Milan, Macron also said that Europe needed a “strong” Italy to help resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
In Sunday’s crisis, the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, seemed to rule out the possibility that her country contributes to any peace maintenance force in Ukraine, saying that “he was never on the agenda.”
“We need Italy, a strong Italy that works side by side with France, with Germany, at the concert of great nations,” Macron said, according to a translation of his comments published in Italian.
