What do key players want

This could be a defining week for the war in Ukraine, with two groups of hasty conversations in Paris and Riyadh.

European leaders meet in France as they collide with a response to Donald Trump's plan to open negotiations with Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio should meet in the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine does not attend any set of conversations.

Russia launched a full -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and is currently controlled more than one fifth of its territory, mainly to the south and east.

BBC correspondents are analyzing what key powers are hoping to win two days of intensive diplomacy.

Britain

By Harry Farley, a political correspondent in London

Sir Kiir Starmer hopes to be a bridge between European leaders and Trump's White House, which beats them for their defense costs.

Starmer's proposal to place the UK troops on Earth in Ukraine is part of the role he wants to play.

The government was saying that the conditions of each peace deal were from Ukraine. This has shifted with the new US administration, signaling that the return to the borders of 2014 is “unrealistic”.

Instead, Sir Keyer will hope more European nations in Paris will join him, offering his strength to secure a deal – and prevent Russia from invading Russia again.

But while the Prime Minister is in Paris, the Westminster debate continues how much the country has to spend on defense.

The Labor has promised to “expose” a way “to increase defense costs by 2.3% of GDP now to 2.5%. Defense sources say this would be a significant rise.

But there is no date for it when that would happen – and many claim it is now urgent.

Germany

By Damian McGines, a German correspondent in Berlin

This is a sign of how German leaders are shaken through Trump's approach to Ukraine Only days before national elections Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also in Paris.

All major parties have condemned US proposals that the peace deal would be mediated without Ukraine or the EU. The end-to-do and populist-left politicians welcome conversations with Putin and want to stop the arms of Kiev. But they will not enter power.

So whatever the next German government seems, Berlin's support for Ukraine will remain strong. This is because Berlin's political elite admits that a bad deal – the one that undermines Ukrainian sovereignty – would be detrimental to Germany.

But given the 20th century, the voters here are cautious about militarization.

Over the last three years, the country has successfully focused away from Russian energy and has increased the massive defense costs. But this struck the German economy greatly and the subsequent budget lines caused the German government to collapse.

Thus, politicians are trying to avoid public discussions on difficult issues, such as higher goals for NATO costs or German peacekeeping troops in Ukraine – at least after the election.

Poland

By Sarah Rensford, a correspondent of Eastern Europe in Warsaw

Poland has been a key supporter of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full -scale invasion and is the main logistics center for military and humanitarian aid entering the country.

In addition, it is a strong voice that argues that Russia cannot be allowed to win the war that has begun – because all European security is at risk. So there is horror that the United States seems to admit to Moscow's key demands, even before the conversations began, when Poland sees Russia very clearly as an aggressor and as dangerous.

Russia is the reason for Poland to spend large military – up to almost 5% of GDP now – and agrees with the United States that the rest of Europe must do the same.

On the way to conversations in Paris, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote to X: “If we Europeans, we are unable to spend on defense now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more, if not preventing wider war. “

On whether to send Polish troops to Ukraine – to help impose a possible fire – government officials were cautious, which excluded it so far.

Northern and Baltic countries

By Nick Bull, a correspondent of Europe in Copenhagen

Denmark will be the only Scandinavian nation at the meeting on Monday. But European diplomats say that it will also represent the interests of its Baltic neighbors in the East – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all of whom border Russia and feel particularly vulnerable to any future attack by Putin.

The shocks generated by Trump's second term are already reflected around Denmark.

Trump's renovated desire to take over Greenland, an autonomous Danish dependent territory – Parts the Prime Minister of Denmark Met Fredericksen on a tour of the European Allies' whistle last month to raise support.

On Monday in Paris, Fredericksen again finds himself on a hurry to meet to respond to Trump's reshaping from the transatlantic landscape for security.

Fredericksen has not yet followed in Starmer's footsteps by betting peacekeeping boots on Earth in Ukraine.

Defense Minister Trills Lund Pulse was quoted by the Danish media, saying that he was not excluding it – but it was too early to talk.

France

By Andrew Harding, a correspondent of Paris

French President Emanuel Macron called the informal meeting on Monday not the “summit”, his employees insisted on Europe to coordinate a response to both the increasingly unimaginable stand of Washington to the continent and whatever you are It appeared from the quick White House talks with Kremlin.

“Europeans, as we say, are not coordinated, but this can be the whole point of the (this) summit in Paris and this is the beginning of coordination … Are we ready? The answer is no. Can we prepare? The answer? Well, yes, said Francois Haisburg, a veteran French military expert, commenting on the need for Europe to work together to prepare a possible peacekeeping force for Ukraine.

“There is a wind of unity throughout Europe that is not visible from Covid,” says Jean-Noel Baro, the oldest diplomat in France.

The mood in France-nation, which is always cautious of American geopolitical maneuvering, is currently particularly sharp, with newspaper titles warning of a new “Trump-Putin axis” that will eliminate or abandon Europe during the war in Ukraine.

“We have to be in a state of emergency for the whole Europe,” warned former Prime Minister Dominic de Willepin in a recent news briefing, accusing “arrogant” Trump of trying to “run the world without principles or respect.”

Russia

By Lisa Fok, BBC Russian in Paris

Since the summer, Putin has said that his basic conditions for starting war negotiating are the recognition of Ukrainian -occupied Ukrainian territories, raising sanctions against Russia and refusing Ukraine's request to join NATO.

Most European countries categorically reject these demands. The United States was very cautious about discussing what discounts Russia could have to do, even though both the White House and the Pentagon said they were expecting compromises from both countries.

Moscow's priority is obviously the Saudi Arabia meeting. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he will “first want to listen to” US proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine.

As for Europe, Moscow sees no point in inviting her to the negotiating table.

It is no secret that for many years, Putin has sought dialogue specifically with the United States, a country that he accuses at the beginning of the war in Ukraine and considers the only power equal to Russia.

Moscow can take into account Starmer's statements that he is ready to send peacemakers to Ukraine – for the first time in a week, the discussion is about potential Russian, not Ukrainian discounts.

But whether Russia is ready for any compromise remains an open question.

USA

Bernd Debusmann JR reports by Mar-A-Lago, Florida

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Messenger in the Middle East Steve Vikof will be the public face of the US team negotiating in Riyadh – but perhaps the main voice of the table is more than 7,400 miles (11,900 km), in Palm Beach, Florida.

Despite Trump's public engagements in recent days, it is clear that negotiations with Russia about Ukraine's fate have been a focus behind the scenes.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters that he was up to date with the most developed developments and conversations “moving together”.

Its short -term goal is to stop the fighting in Ukraine. He wants a less US involvement, given that the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars to Kiev's weapons.

Trump also demanded access to rare minerals in Ukraine in exchange for help or even as a support for the support that the United States has already provided.

But he has not yet said what a post -war Ukraine will look like, with alarm bells in Europe.

He also said that he expects Voladimir Zelenski to Ukraine to be part of the “conversation”, but not the conversations in Riyadh. Rubio said conversations in Saudi Arabia are only the beginning of a longer process that “obviously” will include Europe and Ukraine.

These remarks are likely to provide a little comfort for us allies who have listened to Trump's remarks in the last few days.

In response to a BBC question on Wednesday, Trump said he believed he was inclined to agree with the evaluation of the Minister of Defense Pete Heget that the return to the borders before 2014 was unrealistic for Ukraine, although it expects Ukraine to He received “some” from this land back.

So far, it seems that the solution is not what is pleasant for Zelenski and the rest of Ukraine's management.

By Mariana Matveichuk, BBC Ukraine in Kyiv

The Ukrainian people believe that their future is as uncertain as it was in February 2022.

Ukrainians want peace – not to wake up the sounds of sirens and not lose loved ones on the battlefield and in the cities of the fronts.

Russia occupies almost 25% of the territory of Ukraine. The protection of Ukraine costs tens of thousands of lives for its citizens.

In the past, the country insisted that every peace transaction involved the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. This includes not only areas that Russia has caught in its full -scale offensive, but also on the Black Sea Sea Peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexes after 2014, and the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russia supported the separatists in the battles, also after 2014 .

Ukrainians are scared of a peace agreement like this in 2014 or 2015 – the heavy battles were stopped, but the cross fire at the border continued to carry losses.

Without security guarantees, it would also mean an opportunity for a new wave of war after a decade or so.

“Ukraine views all conversations about Ukraine without Ukraine as such that has no result, and we cannot admit … Agreements for us without us,” said Ukraine President Volodimir Zelenski for the US-Russia meeting.

Whatever form it takes all peace talks, the Ukrainians want an agency for their own future.

Many see previous peacekeepers with Russia, simply paving the way to their full invasion. So the Ukrainian fear is that any transaction agreed on his head can lead to a third war.