EU levies Russia sanctions as Ukraine allies meet

Leaders of roughly 30 countries began arriving in Paris, France, on Monday for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing—a group of countries agreeing to militarily defend Ukraine. The group is expected to discuss the potential deployment of a multinational armed force in Ukraine, along with additional avenues of defense support. Ahead of the coalition’s meeting, the United Kingdom and European Union both announced new sanctions against Russian officials and entities over cyberattacks, including an attack on Poland’s energy grid. NATO also condemned the attacks.

Who is willing to defend Ukraine? French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are the group’s leaders. The United States is not officially a member of the coalition, since it has ruled out deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine, but it usually participates in the group’s meetings. Moldova and North Macedonia are joining the group for the first time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte are also among those attending the meeting.

What else are leaders expected to discuss?

• Zelenskyy was set to convene a meeting with a smaller subset of the group to discuss the development of a new anti-ballistic system called FREYA. America’s Patriot system was the best, and Ukraine also hoped to receive France’s SAMP/T NG system, but FREYA should be less expensive and easier to mass-produce, he said. Participants in that talk would include leaders, national security advisers, and defense companies from countries able to concretely assist in building the system, he said.

• Zelenskyy also planned to push allies to deliver on commitments from previous support packages.

• On the sidelines of the meeting, Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, was scheduled to discuss increased partnership between Ukraine and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

What’s Russia’s response to the meeting? The Kremlin would closely monitor the coalition’s proceedings, but its members falsely believed they could defeat Russia, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to state-run news source TASS.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ report on the U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors.