Emmanuel Macron appears to have proposed a one-month ceasefire in Ukraine after returning from a defence summit with European and world leaders in London.

France’s president has put on the table a ‘truce in the air, on the seas and energy infrastructures’, a plan understood to also be backed by Britain.

He told French newspaper Le Figaro: ‘We know how to measure it… In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to check that the front was being respected.’

Soldiers would only be deployed on the ground as part of a second phase. 

‘There will be no European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks,’ Macron said.

‘The question is how we use this time to try to obtain an accessible truce, with negotiations that will take several weeks and then, once peace is signed, a deployment.’

Macron also said he does not believe in a deal signed between the US and Russia, convinced that Vladimir Putin will seek to humiliate Ukraine and demilitarise it.

The French politician also suggested that European countries should raise their defence spending to between 3 and 3.5 per cent of GDP to respond to Washington’s shift of priorities and Russia’s militarisation.

‘For three years, Russia have spent 10 per cent of their GDP on defence,’ he told the newspaper. ‘So we have to prepare for what’s next.’

For France alone, this would be a significant increase from the current 2 per cent it has been spending on defence.

There has been no word from Downing Street about Macron’s proposal – and if the British government is behind it.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK, France and other nations involved with today’s conversations agreed to come up with a European-led plan to find a secure resolution to the war.

Referring to it as a ‘coalition of the willing’, the prime minister insisted that any peace plan for Ukraine must have US security guarantees and said the plan is currently being developed on the basis that ‘it will have US backing.’

The summit in London comes two days after Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelensky and said he was not grateful enough for his support.

Earlier this evening, the Ukrainian president repeated his remarks that he is ‘exchangeable’ for Ukrainian membership of Nato, and suggested he was ready to sign a minerals deal with the US.

Speaking to reporters at Stansted Airport before he left the country, he was asked if could stand down in the event his country finally becomes a Nato member.

‘I am exchangeable for Nato,’ he was reported to have said in Ukrainian, via a translator.

Zelensky added: ‘I have said that I am exchanging for Nato membership, then it means I have fulfilled my mission. Nato means I have fulfilled my mission.’

He also told reporters Ukraine was ‘ready to sign it’, when asked about the minerals deal with America that was put on hold after his stormy meeting with Trump.

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