<p>Paris: France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine that would not cover ground fighting, French President Emmanuel Macron told the daily newspaper <em>Le Figaro</em> on Sunday.</p><p>However, Macron said the truce would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks.</p><p>"In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify (fighting) along the front was being respected," Macron told <em>Le Figaro</em>, adding that the front line was equivalent to the distance between Paris and Budapest.</p><p>Macron spoke to <em>Le Figaro</em> as he flew to London for a meeting with European leaders, convened by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advance efforts at drawing up a Ukraine peace plan.</p><p>The summit in London came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's White House meeting with US President Donald Trump ended in acrimony. World leaders have offered a strong show of support to the Ukrainian leader and promised to do more to help his nation.</p>.'Not right' what happened, but think US-Ukraine ties salvageable, says Zelenskyy after Trump clash.<p>Under the Franco-British proposal, European ground troops would only be deployed to Ukraine in a second phase, Macron said.</p><p>"There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks," Le Figaro quoted Macron as saying.</p><p>"The question is how we use this time to try to obtain a truce, with negotiations that will take several weeks and then, once peace is signed, a (troop) deployment."</p><p>Zelenskyy, asked if he was aware of the plan, told reporters in London: "I'm aware of everything."</p><p>Macron has said his country and other European nations must spend more on defense. He told <em>Le Figaro</em> that this might mean in the region of 3 per cent to 3.5 per centof gross domestic product. The European Commission also needed to be more innovative in financing defense spending, he said.</p>
<p>Paris: France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine that would not cover ground fighting, French President Emmanuel Macron told the daily newspaper <em>Le Figaro</em> on Sunday.</p><p>However, Macron said the truce would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks.</p><p>"In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify (fighting) along the front was being respected," Macron told <em>Le Figaro</em>, adding that the front line was equivalent to the distance between Paris and Budapest.</p><p>Macron spoke to <em>Le Figaro</em> as he flew to London for a meeting with European leaders, convened by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advance efforts at drawing up a Ukraine peace plan.</p><p>The summit in London came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's White House meeting with US President Donald Trump ended in acrimony. World leaders have offered a strong show of support to the Ukrainian leader and promised to do more to help his nation.</p>.'Not right' what happened, but think US-Ukraine ties salvageable, says Zelenskyy after Trump clash.<p>Under the Franco-British proposal, European ground troops would only be deployed to Ukraine in a second phase, Macron said.</p><p>"There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks," Le Figaro quoted Macron as saying.</p><p>"The question is how we use this time to try to obtain a truce, with negotiations that will take several weeks and then, once peace is signed, a (troop) deployment."</p><p>Zelenskyy, asked if he was aware of the plan, told reporters in London: "I'm aware of everything."</p><p>Macron has said his country and other European nations must spend more on defense. He told <em>Le Figaro</em> that this might mean in the region of 3 per cent to 3.5 per centof gross domestic product. The European Commission also needed to be more innovative in financing defense spending, he said.</p>