(Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron said only Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could negotiate on behalf of his country with Russia to end the war, warning a "peace that is a capitulation" would be "bad news for everyone", including the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
"The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably, and credibly willing to agree to a ceasefire on this basis. After that, it’s up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia,” Macron said in an interview with the newspaper at the Elysee Palace.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday separately discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy and told U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the nearly three-year-long conflict.
The phone calls came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine's military allies in Brussels that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders - before Russia annexed Crimea - was unrealistic and that the U.S. does not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution.
Ukrainians on Thursday worried that Trump was preparing to sell out their country following his phone call Putin.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.
Macron told the Financial Times that Trump had created a “window of opportunity” for a negotiated solution, where "everyone has to play their role", adding that it is now up to Zelenskiy to discuss territorial and sovereignty issues.
He said "..it is up to the international community, with a specific role for the Europeans, to discuss security guarantees and, more broadly, the security framework for the entire region. That is where we have a role to play."
Macron described Trump’s return as an "electroshock" that should force Europe to secure its own future as well as Ukraine’s, the Financial Times report added.
Separately, Macron said to the newspaper that expelling Gazans would be “extremely dangerous”, adding that Trump’s designs on Gaza and Greenland were examples of the "extreme strategic uncertainty" the world was now living in.
The commentary is aimed at Trump's shock announcement that the U.S. intends to remove Gaza residents and transform the war-ravaged territory into what the president billed as a "Riviera of the Middle East". He had also said he wants to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Macron reiterated that Europe should build its defence capabilities so it can act even when the U.S. is not involved.
“We must also develop a fully integrated European defence, industrial and technological base,” Macron said.
In January, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris, Macron said: "After the inauguration of a new administration in the United States, it is necessary more than ever for Europeans and for our two (France and Germany) countries to play their role of consolidating a united, strong and sovereign Europe."
(Reporting Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Bipasha Dey;Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Michael Perry)