Britain, France refine Ukraine peace plan with new Washington trip in mind

By John Irish

PARIS (Reuters) - France and Britain are aiming to finalise with Ukraine, possibly "in days", a peace plan to present to the United States, while building bridges between the U.S. and Ukraine before possible talks in Washington, diplomats said.

President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have held several calls, separately, with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy since the presidents of the U.S. and Ukraine held a fractious meeting last Friday in the Oval Office that led to a suspension of U.S. military aid to Kyiv.

The breakdown in U.S.-Ukraine ties has given new urgency to the two European nuclear powers' efforts to pull together ideas for a peace plan that would initially outline a short truce but also eventually include broader security guarantees.

Britain and France have both said the U.S. would be needed for future assurances.

"We're looking at putting this plan together in days and not weeks," said one senior European diplomat.

A second European diplomat said the idea was to have all the "ducks lined up", including a more healthy dialogue between Washington and Kyiv, while underlining the message to the U.S. that Russia was the aggressor.

If the conditions were then in place, it could open the door to new meetings in Washington between the Europeans and Trump, although it was unclear at this stage whether this would also involve Zelenskiy or just the British and French leaders.

France's government spokeswoman, Sophie Primas, told reporters on Wednesday that a visit by Macron, Starmer and Zelenskiy was under consideration, but the French presidency quickly corrected her to say that was not the case at this point.

The details of the plan have not been divulged and one European diplomat said military chiefs were aiming to finalise the military aspects over the next week.

One option is a partial one-month truce that would cover attacks by air and sea and also those targeting energy infrastructure but not ground fighting, and would be supported by France, Britain and a coalition of other willing countries, diplomats said.

Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would be ready to come to the negotiating table and support the plans for a truce.

Primas told LCI television: "We have proposed a truce. That is what is being studied within the negotiations with the United States. France and Europe are trying to reestablish a link between the United States and Ukraine."

(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Gareth Jones)