French Élysée Palace welcomes US officials for conflict resolution talks on Ukraine

The French seat of the presidency has hosted a second round of high-level talks on the resolution of the Ukraine conflict, this time involving the US State Secretary Marco Rubio and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed the guests at the Élysée Palace on April 17, as Caliber.Az reports according to the president's press service.

The discussions were centred around the question on how to advance peace negotiations to end the Ukrainian conflict and built on earlier dialogues, such as the March 27 coalition meeting that took place in the same destination.

Macron's press service revealed that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just before the meeting began. British, French, German, and Ukrainian senior officials were also invited to the meeting, including the UK’s National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, and Macron’s top diplomatic advisor Emmanuel Bonne.

The French and British heads of government hosted a gathering of the "coalition of the willing" on March 27 in Paris, which entail those countries that have expressed their readiness to assist in the establishment of a peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine should a ceasefire agreement be reached. Neither the US not Russia were represented at the previous meeting at the Élysée Palace.

By Nazrin Sadigova