Europe tries to revive Ukraine negotiations as focus shifts to Venezuela

European leaders are gathering in Paris on Tuesday to try to reignite interest in a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war, just as the U.S. government and the world’s attention has shifted to the Venezuelan crisis.

The U.S. detention and arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and their subsequent extradition to the United States on criminal charges has attracted global media attention, raising the risk that U.S. interest in securing a peace deal with Ukraine will diminish.

European officials are keen to revive momentum seen in pre-Christmas talks between the United States and its Ukrainian and Russian partners aimed at securing agreement on a 20-point peace plan to end nearly four years of fighting.

The so-called “Coalition of the Willing” – a group of countries that say they are ready to provide post-war security and peacekeeping forces to Ukraine – will meet in the French capital to discuss elements of the peace plan agreed so far, as well as remaining obstacles to a deal: Ukraine’s security and territorial concessions demanded by Russia.

Russia rejects the idea of ​​European countries guaranteeing Kiev’s security or sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, and wants Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbass region to Moscow. Ukraine says it is willing to abandon its ambitions to join NATO but needs guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression.

There was already growing concern in Europe that US President Donald Trump would lose interest in Ukraine and the pursuit of a peace deal, given his erratic nature and his previous vacillations toward the end of the war, especially over whether Ukraine could hope to emerge from the war with its territorial integrity intact.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday for talks that also included European leaders, senior European Commission officials and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will reportedly not attend, citing the Venezuelan crisis.

Commenting on the Paris gathering, Emily Thornberry, chair of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told CNBC that US involvement remains important.

“Today’s talks are about the future of Ukraine, which is very important and requires security from the United States, because we don’t want to have peace that lasts only a few months and then Russia comes in and takes over Ukraine while we’re not looking,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“The only way to achieve a just and lasting peace is for Americans to get involved. We’re not looking for boots on the ground, we’re looking for some meaningful security guarantee,” she added.

Analysts have warned that President Trump’s detention of Maduro does not bode well for Ukraine. Not only would it be a serious distraction for the United States, but it would also send a message to Moscow that it would be allowed to remove rival national leaders on criminal charges, especially if that leader is considered to be within the superpower’s geopolitical “sphere of influence.”

The Russian government frequently describes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “criminal” without providing evidence to support the accusation.