French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe will have to find a way to directly engage with the Russian leader as the US pushes ahead with peace talks, writes Bloomberg.

“Either a lasting peace is reached” in current negotiations “or we find ways for Europeans to re-engage in a dialog with Russia - in transparency and association with Ukraine,” Macron told reporters in Brussels. “It will become useful again to speak to Vladimir Putin”.

President Donald Trump is leading his latest push to achieve peace in Ukraine after almost four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The talks have produced an offer of concrete US security guarantees that would prevent Russia from renewing attacks.

But it remains unclear whether Putin is ready to end the war as he continues to seek control of territory in the eastern part of Ukraine, which his military has failed to seize during more than a decade of hostilities.

Macron spoke after EU leaders agreed in the early hours of Friday to lend Ukraine EUR 90 billion for the next 2 years, backed by the bloc’s budget. The decision marked a significant pivot away from the bloc’s once-preferred plan to use Russian assets frozen on EU soil to underwrite the loan. “We, Europeans and Ukrainians, have an interest in finding the right framework to re-engage in this discussion in a proper manner”, - Macron said. “Otherwise, we will be discussing among ourselves with negotiators who will then go and discuss with the Russians on their own. That is not ideal.”