Following Trump's announcement of imminent Putin meeting and J.D. Vance's hostile Munich speech, European leaders gathered in Paris for an emergency summit. The morning saw Macron's phone call with Trump, while Saudi Arabia prepared to host US-Russia talks in Riyadh.
By afternoon, deep divisions emerged among European states regarding potential deployment of peacekeepers to Ukraine, with the UK signaling readiness while Germany's Scholz opposed both troop discussions and any "diktat peace." The Kremlin declared Europeans who "want to continue the war" would be excluded from negotiations.
Evening headlines focused on Zelensky's scheduled visit to Riyadh, where US-Russia talks begin tomorrow. Meanwhile, a massive recall of 240,000 Citroën vehicles due to Takata airbag defects highlighted France's domestic concerns.