Don't prejudge Trump over Ukraine, says France

Ukraine's allies must not prejudge how Donald Trump will handle the war there, France's foreign minister said on Monday, as French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reaffirmed their support for Kyiv during talks in Paris.

Trump has repeatedly criticised the scale of Western aid to Kyiv and has promised to end the conflict swiftly, without explaining how. His victory in last week's presidential election has spurred concerns in Kyiv and other European capitals about the degree of future US commitment to helping Ukraine.

"Facing the speculation on what could be the positions or initiatives of the new US administration, I think that we absolutely should not prejudge and we have to give (the administration) time," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum.

However, Barrot said any initiatives would have to ensure that Ukraine itself determined the timing and conditions for engaging in a negotiation process. In the meantime, he said, Western allies had to give Kyiv all the necessary means to push back invading Russian forces.

"Ukraine, and beyond that the international community, would have too much to lose if Russia imposed the law of the strongest," he said.

Separately, Macron's office said the French president and Britain's Starmer had discussed the Ukraine situation on the sidelines of Monday's ceremony to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day, which ended World War One in 1918.

Trump spoke in recent days with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, a source familiar with the conversation told Reuters on Sunday, though the Kremlin denied on Monday that the two men had spoken.