MSC 2025: France plans Ukraine summit amid US fallout

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine and European countries would need to participate in peace talks with Russia.

It comes after US President Donald Trump spoke to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the phone without consulting European allies or Kyiv beforehand, sparking fears among EU leaders that they could be excluded from peace talks.

Rubio told the CBS broadcaster on Sunday that Trump had directed him and his team to "immediately" begin negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

"If it's real negotiations — and we're not there yet — but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they're the one that were invaded," he said.

"And the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well and they've contributed to this effort," he said.

"One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one," Rubio said, adding that the war had been "complicated" and "bloody."

Rubio also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Zelenskyy has insisted that there should be "no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine" or "about Europe without Europe."

On Saturday, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Europe would not be directly involved in talks on Ukraine but would still provide "input."

Chinese military expert Zhou Bo told DW he believed that NATO must learn to live with Russia in order to put an end to the war in Ukraine.

"NATO has to coexist with Russia, like it or not," he said.

"Russia cannot be washed away."

He said that Beijing also welcomed talks on peace in Ukraine.

"I think any ideas about peace in Ukraine are welcome in China," he said.

He said that China's role could be to "[join] other major powers in providing collective security guarantees to Ukraine and even to Russia."

Zhou said that China and India could be "troop contributing countries" if Russia and Ukraine agree on establishing "peacekeeping operations."

He argued that a European peacekeeping presence would not be "realistic," saying that Moscow would perceive this as "another way" to establish a NATO presence in Ukraine.

Zhou said that Beijing could contribute considerably to post-war reconstruction in Ukraine and pointed to Chinese infrastructure projects around the world.

China has long called for a negotiated settlement in the war in Ukraine and has not joined Western countries in sanctioning Russia.

Enoch Wu, a Taiwanese politician and analyst, warned that autocrats were taking lessons from the war in Ukraine.

Wu is the only delegate from Taiwan to attend the Munich Security Conference.

He told DW that the outcome of the war would have "direct implications for Asia… and autocrats are looking very closely."

Asked whether he was worried about the possibility of a peace deal that would leave Russia with at least de facto control over a large section of Ukrainian territory, Wu said that China could get the message that it could seize Taiwan with "impunity."

He said an approach where countries retreat to their own "spheres of influence" would be a "bad outcome" for both Europe and Taiwan.

Wu is a member of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and is the founder of the Forward Alliance national security and civil defense NGO.

Munich Security Conference chief Benedikt Franke said that the summit was much more than a "speech by a US vice president."

"It's definitely true that the Europeans would have hoped for a different speech," Franke told DW editor-in-chief Manuela Kasper-Claridge, referring to remarks by US Vice President JD Vance on Friday in which he criticized EU states on domestic policy issues.

He added that he would have liked to have seen more "dialogue."

However, he added that he "would warn against assigning too much importance to this speech" and stressed that there had been "thousands" of bilateral conversations going on at the conference.

He said that the conference would like to once again invite a Russian delegation once a "constructive approach to negotiations becomes apparent" on the part of Moscow.

Russia chose not to send a delegation to the 2022 conference, which was held just days before Moscow launched its invitation of Ukraine. Russia was not invited to the conference in 2023, 2024 or 2025.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for greater European involvement in the NATO military alliance.

"It's clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine's future and face down the threat we face from Russia."

He also said that London would continue to work for good relations with Washington amid fears of a rift between Europe and the US.

"The UK will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together. We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face," he said.

Meanwhile, UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that London could play a "constructive role" in keeping the allies together.

"There is definitely, from the US administration, a view towards Europe and there's a slightly different view towards ourselves in the UK," he told the BBC broadcaster.

However, he acknowledged that such a task wouldn't be "easy."

"There's a very assertive agenda from the US," he stressed.

France's Minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, warned against "capitulation" in potential talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine.

"A bad ceasefire, bad negotiations, a capitulation for Putin would be in no-one's interest," he told DW correspondent Teri Schultz.

He warned that if Russia were to rearm and reattack, it would be damaging to US credibility elsewhere in the world.

Haddad stressed that Europeans had to redouble their efforts to support Ukraine to give that country a strong position from which to negotiate.

Haddad's comments come three days after French President Emmanuel Macron told the Financial Times the EU should respond to what he described as an "electroshock" coming from US counterpart Donald Trump.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for a strong and united Europe and warned that Russia could continue to be a threat for many years.

“Ukraine is only the first target," Nauseda told DW.

"Russia poses [a] long-term threat for [the] next 20-30 years," he said.

He argued against giving Russia a "quick" peace deal in Ukraine, saying such a move would allow Moscow to restock and attack once again.

"The West should negotiate with Russia from a position of strength," he said.

He called for EU member states to unite and increase military spending.

Friedrich Merz, who leads Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), warned of a possible rift in the relationship between the United States and European countries.

"Disagreements between the US and Europe have taken on a completely new quality," Merz said in a weekly email to supporters.

"It is now about our fundamental understanding of democracy and the open society. It is now about the independence of the courts and the separation of powers and about the basic consensus to date regarding the actual threats to our freedom," he said.

He made the comments after US Vice President JD Vance spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and claimed that Europe was retreating "from some of its most fundamental values" while criticizing European states on domestic political matters.

The conservative CDU/CSU alliance is currently the frontrunner in polls ahead of February 23 parliamentary elections.

Shortly after Vance's speech, current Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) criticized the remarks, calling them "irritating," while Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the US vice president's comments were "not acceptable."

Following the announcement that the US will hold talks with Russia without talking first to Ukraine or its European allies has sparked concern among many of those present at the Munich Security Conference.

"This is probably an all time low, post the Second World War, between Europe and the United States," DW's chief political correspondent Michaela Kuefner said on Sunday.

European leaders are planning to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to work out how to respond, but as Kuefner pointed out, they still don't know exactly what they are responding to as few details of US President Donald Trump's "peace plan" have been revealed.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has told DW that "there is no chance to have a fair and just deal over Ukraine's future without Ukraine" after indications that the US plans to hold initial talks with Russia about ending its invasion of Ukraine without the involvement of either Kyiv or Brussels.

"Well, look, how can you guys negotiate the future of Ukraine without Ukrainians? And the same goes for the European Union, and the same actually goes for the entire architecture of NATO and the free world," he said in remarks on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. "So I do believe that this has to stop as quickly as possible."

"We strongly believe that our American friends and allies will come to their senses and we will be together in our righteous fight against autocrats and dictators," he added.

Yatsenyuk said it was not in the interests of the US or its president to hold bilateral negotiations with Russia in which they capitulated to President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.

"[Putin] wants to take over entire Ukraine. He wants to disrupt the European Union, and he wants actually, together with his autocratic friends, to humiliate the United States and to depose the United States as the leader of the free world," he said.
 
"So I strongly believe that the president of the United States, the newly elected president, doesn't want to have a new European Afghanistan on his watch."

"So if the Americans want to lead the world [...] they have to do their best in order to save Ukraine. And in order to save Ukraine, everyone [has] to sit at the table," he said.

Yatsenyuk also recalled the Budapest Memorandum in the early 90s, in which Ukraine gave up its huge nuclear arsenal in return for US security guarantees, saying that "our American friends have both a political and a legal responsibility" to save Ukraine.

But in conclusion, he emphasized once more. "We would never accept any kind of deal that has been made behind our backs."

French President Emmanuel Macron will host an emergency gathering of European leaders in response Washington's apparent wish to exclude them from any say in potential peace negotations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, various sources have said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed on Sunday´to public broadcaster France-Info that there would be an emergency "working meeting" on Monday in Paris to discuss next steps for Ukraine after the US announcements last week. 

NATO chief Mark Rutte has already said he intends to join any such meeting

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski initially announced the plans on X, but later deleted his post. He also spoke at the Munich Security Conference of an invitation to the meeting.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer were also reported as planning to attend.

The plans come after US President Donald Trump surprised European partners by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin without any prior consultation with them or Kyiv and announced that peace talks would start immediately.

European leaders were also shocked after Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday that Europe would not be involved in any Ukraine peace talks, despite the fact that the conflict unleashed by Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor is taking place on the continent and closely affects its security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he told his ministers not to sign a proposed agreement that would have enabled the US to access rare earth minerals from Ukraine that are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries.

"I didn't let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because in my view it is not ready to protect us, our interest," Zelenskyy told The Associated Press on Saturday in Munich.

The proposal was one focus of Zelenskyy's talks with US Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of the conference on Friday.

Ukrainian sources said the proposed deal envisioned the US accessing Ukraine's rare earth minerals to compensate Washington for previous, current and future aid to Kyiv.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement that "President
Zelenskyy is being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump Administration has presented to Ukraine."

The statement added that Washington believes that "binding economic ties with the United States will be the best guarantee against future aggression and an integral part of lasting peace."

Saturday, the second day of the conference, was marked by reactions to the divisive speech given by US Vice President JD Vance and attempts to show European unity in backing Ukraine.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Vance's calls to work with the far right and stressed the importance of Ukraine's involvement in any peace deal after Trump's bilateral call with Putin
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed Europe's role in defending itself against Russia and called for the establishment of a European army
• European top diplomats and US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg took part in a DW-run townhall on 'A plan for Ukraine'
• Kellog said it was important to talk to Putin to end the war, but said it was too early to say when Trump's 'peace plan' would be ready

This year's Munich Security Conference (MSC) has already seen two eventful days, with clear rifts appearing between the US and its European partners, especially over the question of how to end the war in Ukraine.

Sunday is the last day of the conference, with several events running until the early afternoon. We will keep you up-to-date with the major headlines and reactions.

We're pausing our live coverage; thanks for following along. We will have further coverage of the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, the final day of the event.