Ukraine's allies meet in Paris, as Macron, Zelenskiy warn of Russian attacks

The European Union, though, is falling short of its target of sending Ukraine a million rounds of artillery shells by March. "We want to send Putin a very clear message, that he won't win in Ukraine," a French presidential adviser told reporters ahead of the meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday the consensus among European countries was that they should be prepared for a possible attack by Russia on them in coming years and that more efforts were needed to help Ukraine financially and militarily. Some 20 European leaders gathered in Paris on Monday to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message of European resolve on Ukraine and counter the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is bound to win a war now in its third year.

"I have noted that more or less all the countries represented around this table have said...that the common consensus was that we should be ready in a few years' time, for Russia to attack these countries," Macron said in opening remarks. "We all agree we don't want to go to war with the Russian people, but we're determined to keep escalation under control," he said, adding that the meeting was meant to see how to "do more in terms of military support and budget support".

Macron has invited his European counterparts to the Elysee palace for a hastily arranged meeting to discuss how to ramp up ammunition supplies to Ukraine amid what his advisers say is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks. "There was a great sense of urgency," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters after the meeting. He added that leaders were getting behind a Czech initiative to buy ammunitions worldwide to send to Ukraine.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said about 15 states had signed up to the initiative to buy hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries, something that France has initially been cautious about as it wants to prioritise the development of Europe's own industry, but French officials said they were warming to it. Ammunition supplies have become a critical issue for Kyiv. The European Union, though, is falling short of its target of sending Ukraine a million rounds of artillery shells by March.

"We want to send Putin a very clear message, that he won't win in Ukraine," a French presidential adviser told reporters ahead of the meeting. "Our goal is to crush this idea he wants us to believe that he would be somehow winning." After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of shortages of arms and soldiers.

Addressing the leaders via videolink, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy backed Macron's warning about an escalation of the conflict: "We must ensure that Putin cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British foreign minister David Cameron, as well as leaders from Spain, Portugal, Poland and Scandinavian and Baltic nations, were among those attending.

The United States, which has been under much scrutiny as its latest military aid package for Ukraine has stalled in Congress, will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O'Brien. FIGHTING THE GLOOM

French officials said Macron, who is due in Kyiv in March, was keen to seek solutions after a security conference in Munich this month, which coincided with the death of Putin's leading domestic opponent Alexei Navalny, failed to make progress. "We're neither doomy nor gloomy," the French adviser said. "We want Russia to understand that. Russia will have to count on us all collectively to end this war."

French officials said Russia has shown renewed aggression in recent weeks, including Putin's flight on a nuclear-capable bomber, in what they view as an attempt to intimidate Europeans at a time U.S. support is thrown into doubt by the presidential election. Without offering details, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has opposed military aid to Ukraine, said ahead of travelling to Paris that several NATO and EU members were considering sending soldiers to Ukraine on a bilateral basis. (Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Nick Macfie, Ros Russell and Deepa Babington)

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