Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, who now leads the French Jacques Delors Institut, is one of the leading voices in the European debate on security and defence in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a comment for Le Monde this morning, he called for a new European Common Defence System comprising of the 27 EU member states (not sure pro-Russian Hungary will be that keen, though), the UK, Norway, Iceland, and the three Balkan candidate states: Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

He praised recent decisions on raising EU defence spending as “going in the right direction,” but called for deeper integration “beyond the sole dimension of defence [as] security is a much broader objective than defensive military effectiveness,” pointing to energy independence, connectivity, and European autonomy in terms of financial and economic structures.

He said that a more coordinated response was needed to respond to “openly hostile to the EU” administration in the US, and overcome “dramatic weakeness of the EU” in its fragmentation.

Separately, senior army representatives from over 30 countries are meeting in Paris to discuss creating an international force to deter future Russian aggression once a ceasefire is established.

AP notes that the Paris meeting is the most significant culmination so far of French and British efforts to rally nations under a so-called “coalition of the willing” to safeguard Ukraine by establishing a reassurance and deterrence force to dissuade Russia from invading again.

The list of participating countries includes almost all Nato member states – notably, without the US, as it is meant to be a Europe-led mission – as well as some Commonwealth countries and Asian powers such as Japan and South Korea.

The main meeting, part of the Paris Defence Forum, will take place in late afternoon, with a keynote speech framing the task ahead by French president Emmanuel Macron.

And just hours before the talks were due to get under way, Ukraine targeted Moscow in what authorities said was its largest ever drone attack on the Russian capital, killing at least one person, sparking fires and forcing the suspension of flights and train travel.

The Russian defence ministry said 337 drones were launched at Russia over Monday night, with 91 of them targeting the Moscow region. The Moscow city mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said it was the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the city.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports. Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions east of Moscow, were also closed.

Morning opening: Crunch time

Jakub Krupa

US and Ukrainian officials are meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, today to see if they can find a way forward for Donald Trump’s push to bring the Russian invasion of Ukraine to an end.

The key building block seems to be the minerals deal, which the US side expected to be signed either at Keith Kellogg’s visit to Kyiv last month, or the now infamous visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House.

Kellogg said last week that he was now expecting the deal to be agreed by US state secretary Marco Rubio and his Ukrainian equivalent, and it just so happens that the two take part in today’s talks.

Asked on Fox News if he thought Ukraine could sign the minerals deal this week, Trump Middle East aide Steve Witkoff said: “I am really hopeful. All the signs are very, very positive.” Could this finally happen today, third time lucky?

But we know that both sides are keen to discuss the broader ramification of any deal and what’s next, including the Ukrainian proposal – first floated by French president Emmanuel Macron – for a limited ceasefire in air and at seas to allow for other talks to progress.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy also repeatedly talked about the importance of exchanging hostages, and of his demand for Russia to return abducted Ukrainian children. Let’s see if he can make progress on these issues.

Last night, the Ukrainian president met with Saudi leaders, who are keen to play a mediating role in the process. In a social media post after the meeting, he said he discussed these ideas, and pointedly added that “a significant part of the discussion was dedicated to the formats of security guarantees.”

Rubio, on the other hand, said “both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation.”

He added: “I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do. I think we want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are.”

“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” he said.

Let’s see if they can make progress today. I will bring you all the latest throughout the day.

Elsewhere, we will be keeping one eye on the historic elections in Greenland, the vote of no confidence in the Portuguese government, and other stories across Europe, but our main focus is firmly on Ukraine today.

It’s Tuesday, 11 March 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.