PARIS — Some 20 European leaders will gather in Paris on Monday (Feb 26) to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message of European resolve on Ukraine and counter the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is bound to win a war now entering its third year, France said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited his European counterparts to the Elysee palace for a working meeting announced at short notice because of what his advisers say is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks.
"We want to send Putin a very clear message, that he won't win in Ukraine," a presidential adviser told reporters in a briefing. "Our goal is to crush this idea he wants us to believe that he would be somehow winning."
After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of shortages of arms and soldiers.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Foreign Minister David Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as leaders from Scandinavian and Baltic countries, are scheduled to attend the conference.
The United States will be represented by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Jim O'Brien, and Canada by Defence Minister Bill Blair.
French officials said the security conference in Munich earlier this month, which coincided with the death of Putin's most formidable domestic opponent Alexei Navalny, was all about "doom and gloom", and that Macron was keen to dispel that.
"We're neither doomy nor gloomy," the French adviser said. "We want Russia to understand that. Russia will have to count on us all collectively to end this war and restore Ukraine's rights."
However, the adviser said the working meeting will not be an occasion to announce new weapon deliveries to Ukraine but more to brainstorm ways to be more efficient on the ground, as well as increase coordination between allies and Ukraine.
The French officials said Russia had shown renewed aggressiveness in recent weeks, such as Putin's flight on a nuclear-capable bomber, in what they view as an attempt to intimidate Europeans at a time US support was thrown into doubt by the presidential election.
ALSO READ: Russian attack shatters train station, other buildings in eastern Ukrainian town