France will host an emergency summit of European leaders, as the continent scrambles to respond to US President Donald Trump’s unilateral approach to the Ukraine conflict.

The developments led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in Germany to urge Europe to form its own formidable army, warning it could no longer rely on guaranteed support from the US.

Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday (local time) that Europe would not have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

French President Emmanuel Macron will host a handful of European leaders on Monday (local time).

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scolz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend the talks.

Ahead of the meeting, Starmer told the BBC that Britain would “work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together”, adding the two could not “allow any divisions in the alliance to distract” from “external enemies”.

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO as we work with the US to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia,” Starmer said.

The French presidency added on Sunday that others at the talks would also include the government leaders of Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Sources said the meeting aimed to see what role Europe could play in providing security guarantees for Kyiv, as well as how to strengthen Europe’s collective security.

It was not clear whether anything concrete would come out of it, they said.

Since a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, there have been concerns in Europe and Ukraine that Europeans might be excluded from any peace agreement.

There are fears that Trump does not want Europeans at the negotiating table, yet expects them to bear the burdens of implementing a peace solution.

Negotiations for peace in Ukraine are meanwhile gaining momentum. This week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior Russian representatives are reportedly set to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss an end to the Russian war.

Macron said he had a phone call on Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which Macron discussed
Saudi Arabia’s role in any peace deal for Ukraine and how Europe
should play a key part in this.

Additionally, a meeting between Trump and Putin is to be prepared in the Arab kingdom.

According to Politico, no European representatives are expected to be present at next week’s talks in Saudi Arabia.

Citing a Ukrainian official, the US outlet reported that Ukraine will also not send representatives there.

Russia fighting ‘meanly’

Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes have damaged a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, leaving at least 100,000 people without heating as temperatures plunge below freezing, top Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

“This has nothing to do with the fighting and the situation at the front, but it proves once again that the Russians are fighting against our people and against life in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messenger.

“They are fighting meanly, without relieving pressure. This is not what those who really want peace to be restored and are preparing for negotiations do.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the power plant attack was “done deliberately to leave people without heat in sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe”.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 143 drones overnight. The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 95, while 46 did not reach their targets, likely thanks to the use of electromagnetic countermeasures that disrupt drone attacks.

At least one person was injured in the overnight attacks, which also damaged houses in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said.

The temperature in Mykolaiv was expected to fall to -7 degrees on Sunday night.

Zelensky again urged Western allies to give Ukraine more air defences, with Russia holding 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory and slowly advancing in the east as Moscow’s full-scale invasion nears its third anniversary.

He cited data showing that in the past week Russia had unleashed about 1220 aerial bombs, over 850 drones and more than 40 missiles into government-controlled areas of Ukraine.

-AAP with dpa and PA