War Update: Macron to Meet Rubio, Witkoff Amid US-Europe Tensions – ‘Hard to Distinguish the True Signal From Noise’ (2025)

The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe’s most vocal pro-Ukraine leader will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris on Thursday, as transatlantic tensions build over how to bring an end to Russia’s more than three-year full-scale assault on Ukraine.

The State Department said Rubio was traveling with Witkoff to meet European officials for talks on the goal of stopping Russia’s 11-year-old unprovoked invasion. Witkoff recently met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, ahead of his joint visit with negotiating team member Rubio to Paris this week.

The transatlantic conference comes as diplomats in Washington report that some Trump aides privately say they are “fed up” with Europe’s efforts to strengthen Ukraine, as The Economist news magazine published this week.

Another dark cloud that hangs over the US team’s meeting in Paris is that the administration of President Donald Trump has thus far refused to condemn Russia’s strikes that have recently killed dozens of Ukrainian children and other civilians. The Kremlin’s recent massacres in the cities of Sumy and Kryvyi Rih this month show how Russia’s war is taking a hefty toll on diplomatic efforts.

Macron, by all accounts, has taken the lead in seeking to coordinate a European response to protecting Ukraine, both during the current conflict and in its eventual aftermath after Trump shook the world by opening direct negotiations with Russia.

A French diplomatic source said Rubio and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot would discuss “the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear file”.

AFP reported this will be Rubio’s third trip to Europe since being appointed.

Witkoff said on Monday, just days after his third meeting with Putin, that he sees a peace deal “emerging.”

Separately on Thursday, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu will travel to Washington to meet with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for talks on several issues, including Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza. Lecornu was also expected to meet with National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy.

The Economist this week noted that Trump’s Pentagon officials recently questioned an ally about why it continues to supply weapons to Ukraine.

“As always with such a chaotic administration, it is hard to distinguish the true signal from the noise,” the weekly magazine noted.

Currently, Europeans are moving in two directions, it said.

The first is the effort by UK and French leaders to create a European “reassurance force” to help Ukraine in a possible ceasefire. Russia objects to such a deployment, even though the Trump administration has given no guarantees that it would support Ukraine during any ceasefire, putting the onus on the Europeans.

France and other European allies plan to show Trump they are assuming the burden of European security and maintain at least some American commitment to NATO, if not Ukraine.

According to Ukrainskaya Pravda’s summary of the Economist article, under this new scheme, “the future deterrence of Russia [would] take place in three zones: reinforced Ukrainian forces holding the line against Russia in the east, European forces in the west, and, at least for now, a continued American presence in NATO countries.”

Secondly, the Economist wrote, Europeans would need to give more of their weapons stockpiles and fund Kyiv’s military industry, negotiate with Trump to buy American air defense systems for Ukraine; and use frozen Russian assets to pay for its plan.