Peace negotiations on Ukraine can be ‘turning point’: Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Paris on Monday, and called ongoing talks "a moment that could be a turning point" for the future of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe.

The discussions are part of a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at brokering the terms for a potential ceasefire in the nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy's visit to Paris followed a meeting between Ukrainian and US officials in Florida on Sunday, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as productive. The two sides have worked to make revisions to a proposed US-authored plan that was developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow but criticised as being too weighted toward Russian demands.

Those criticisms were perhaps most vehement from Ukraine's European allies who, while welcoming US peace efforts, pushed back on key tenets of the plan. "Ukraine is the only one that can discuss about its territories as a sovereign nation", Macron said during a joint conference with Zelenskyy. Macron also denounced Russia's continued onslaught against Ukraine: "At a time when we are talking about peace, Russia continues to kill and destroy," he said.

Later, Macron's office said he and Zelenskyy held talks with other leaders from Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Norway and the Netherlands. Also included in the talks were EU officials Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.