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Military operation in Ukraine

French foreign minister says too early to discuss venue of Kiev’s peace plan summit

Catherine Colonna also said that the topic of security guarantees to Ukraine from France is under discussion

PARIS, August 29. /TASS/. French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna told reporters at a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart in Paris that it would be too early to discuss the venue for a summit on the Kiev government’s so-called peace formula.

When asked whether her country was ready to host the event, she said: "It is too early to talk about it yet. We are working on that, by adding more countries to the list of those engaged in discussions with Ukraine about parameters for a sustainable peace. The number of these countries is growing."

Colonna went on to say that the issue of whether her country would provide security guarantees to Ukraine is also being discussed.

"I don’t know whether we will be the first to do this. I don’t want to shock you, but I don’t care. It’s not a race. We are focused on the very essence of this matter. Various bilateral agreements are being forged in accordance with the progress achieved during the NATO summit in Vilnius," the minister added.

The top French diplomat reiterated that "during the G7 summit in Hiroshima, its participants expressed their readiness to negotiate security principles with Ukraine."

"About 20 countries expressed their consent with these principles, which demonstrates solidarity in the context of our shared commitments with regards to Ukraine," she said.

Zelensky first put forward his "peace plan" in a video link address to a G20 summit last November. Since then, Kiev has been actively promoting the initiative, refusing to discuss settlement options presented by third parties and rejecting mediation offers. In particular, this was the goal of the June 24 consultations in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the August 5-6 meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Russia wasn’t invited to either of the events.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted earlier that Zelensky’s so-called peace plan was in fact another US-created manual on how to fuel the conflict in Europe. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in turn, stressed that Zelensky was making statements about a peaceful solution without taking the actual situation into account.

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