French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening that Europe should be prepared to defend itself and Ukraine without the help of the United States, a demand long made by President Donald Trump.

President Macron said France and the rest of Europe cannot “remain spectators” to the war in Ukraine and must seek drastic rearmament to be able to protect the continent without America. The French leader said that he “wants to believe that the United States will stay by our side” but added, “we have to be ready if that is not the case”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said Sunday that he would work with the leaders of Ukraine and France on a cease-fire plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as the region reels from the Trump administration’s recent moves.

The comments came ahead of a summit in London later on Sunday where Mr. Starmer will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and other European leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said a truce between Ukraine and Russia could be agreed in the coming weeks.

He was speaking to Fox News in Washington following talks with Donald Trump at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion.

The US president, who suggested the war could end "within weeks", insisted Europe should shoulder the cost and burden of any peacekeeping...

The United States voted against a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly on Monday that blamed Russia for invading Ukraine exactly three years ago.

The U.S. was joined by Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and 14 other Moscow-friendly nations in voting against the resolution, which included language condemning Russian aggression and calling for Moscow to give up the territory it occupies, which ultimately passed by a wide margin. The vote was 93-18, with 65 abstentions.

The U.S. sided with Russia and China to win the United Nations Security Council’s backing for a resolution crafted in Washington that didn’t blame Moscow for the Ukraine war and called for a swift end to the conflict, as President Trump said he was in talks with Russia about an economic-development deal.

Trump’s comments and the U.S.’s vote at the U.N. on Monday illustrated the extent to which the president has changed the U.S.’s posture toward the region, coming on the same day as European leaders gathered in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of the invasion. 

In a dramatic shift in transatlantic relations under President Donald Trump, the United States split with its European allies by refusing to blame Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in votes on three U.N. resolutions Monday seeking an end to the three-year war.

The growing divide follows Trump’s decision to open direct negotiations with Russia on ending the war, dismaying Ukraine and its European supporters by excluding them from the preliminary talks last week.

Belgium has a new government. All it took was seven months of negotiation — which by Belgian standards is breakneck speed. New Prime Minister Bart De Wever had previously served as mayor of Antwerp from 2013, besides leading his N-VA party for the last two decades. An experienced and formidable politician, it’s surprising it’s taken him this long to lead his country.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front party, died on Tuesday at the age of 96.

Le Pen had been a controversial figure in French politics since he first entered the National Assembly in the 1950s. His supporters said he had championed French identity and the nation’s sovereignty while his critics accused him of being anti-Semitic, of promoting discriminatory policies, and of inciting racial violence.