European leaders have affirmed their support for Ukraine at a Paris summit and agreed now was “not the time” to lift sanctions against Russia, but with splits remaining on Franco-British plans for a “reassurance force” to help guarantee an eventual ceasefire.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday the meeting of more than two dozen heads of state and government had agreed unanimously that sanctions on Moscow should not be eased until “peace has clearly been established” in Ukraine.
The third meeting of what France and the UK have called the “coalition of the willing” for Ukraine was called amid widespread concern that Donald Trump may be open to rolling back some sanctions in order to get Russia to agree to a partial ceasefire deal.
We should ask ourselves why those sanctions are there in the first place, and if looking at Russia today is there any change to their behavior to justify lifting them.
“We are being mean to poor peaceful Russia, as they’re friends who happen to have personally benefitted the current President of the US” is not a valid reason to lift sanctions.