President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday called for Europe to “operate with unity” over the war in Ukraine.

Speaking via videoconference at an extraordinary informal meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP), the pan-European centre-right movement to which he belongs, he said Ukraine’s security is “directly intertwined with that of the EU”.

“The Republic of Cyprus, as a semi-occupied state, considers it imperative that any peace agreement reached for Ukraine must respect the country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” he said.

He also stressed the need for the European Union to strengthen its strategic autonomy and defence capabilities.

The EPP videoconference was organised after European leaders held an emergency meeting over the continent’s security in Paris on Monday, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting had been organised in response to the United States government decision to meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia to discuss the war in Ukraine, but did not produce solid conclusions.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had suggested that European nations and the US combine to deploy a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, but this idea was rejected by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who described the idea of a German peacekeeping mission without a peace deal in hand as “highly inappropriate”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday called for Europe and the US to support his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

He was visiting Turkey, invited to the country by its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of its accession to Nato, and insisted that his country wants peace.

“We want the war to end,” he said.