French parliament calls for seizing frozen Russian assets

Guido Crosettoitalian Defense Minister

There is no future for Ukraine without the possibility of defending itself; a demilitarised Ukraine does not exist."

His Italian counterpart, Guido Crosetto, echoed this sentiment, stating

Sébastien Lecornufrench Defence Minister

We're not there yet,

said Lecornu, identifying two immediate security priorities instead: securing the Black Sea and protecting Ukraine’s nuclear power plants

It is simply a question of looking ahead and thinking about what the Ukrainian army should be in the future,

Lecornu added

Emmanuel Macronpresident

In view of the acceleration of peace negotiations," it was necessary to start planning to "define credible security guarantees" to make a lasting peace in Ukraine a reality

the French presidency reported Macron as saying

We will reject any form of demilitarization of Ukraine."

Ahead of the Paris defense meeting, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said

Emmanuel Macronpresident

This is the moment when Europe must throw its full weight behind Ukraine, and itself,

Macron told the meeting, according to the Elysee

This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up,

said European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen last week

We should not be panicking about [Trump statements],

said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s national security committee

Sometimes Trump goes way over to get people to come to a position of reality,

said Jonathan Bass, foreign affairs expert and Argent LNG CEO

Doesn’t make sense for America to pay for the defense of Europe,

he wrote

Europeans need to think about what sort of troops to put in Ukraine,

he told Fox News Digital

It’s common sense, right,

Trump told reporters of the NATO alliance last week

The United States was not invited--and appropriately so."

Marci Shore, a history professor at Yale University, wrote about the security summit on X