Politico: European leaders failed to agree on sending troops to Ukraine

European leaders at an emergency summit in Paris on February 17 failed to agree on key issues, including sending troops to Ukraine to monitor a possible peace deal.

Politico writes about this.

"We realize that such meetings do not end with decisions," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the 3.5-hour meeting.

The main dispute was whether to send troops into Ukraine if there was an agreement to end the war. French President Emmanuel Macron proposed placing European peacekeeping forces behind the future demarcation line in Ukraine, rather than directly on it.

However, in response, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland spoke out against sending their troops.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after the meeting that any debate about sending peacekeepers to Ukraine is "completely premature" and "highly inappropriate" while the war is ongoing.

Danish representative Mette Frederiksen said that "many, many" things need to be clarified before troops can be sent to Ukraine.

The day before, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated for the first time that his country was ready to deploy troops in Ukraine to implement any peace agreement.

At the same time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his country would not send its military to Ukraine as a security guarantee after a potential ceasefire with Russia, but would continue to support Kyiv as before.

Politico notes that European leaders did not express new common ideas and again spoke "banalities" about helping Ukraine and increasing defense spending.

Starmer said that Europeans will have to increase spending, including for “the opportunities they provide to Ukraine”. And Tusk said that US-EU defense relations are entering a “new phase” as Europeans realize the need for increased defense budgets and greater self-reliance.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has confirmed his support for the European Unionʼs plan to allow countries to increase defense spending even if it exceeds debt and deficit limits, under a new provision that allows countries to take such measures in emergency situations, such as the threat of war or other crises. The proposal was also supported by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Munich Security Conference.

“There should be no division of security and responsibility between Europe and the United States,” Scholz said.

Donald Tusk summed up that "it is in the interests of Europe and the US to cooperate as closely as possible".

What kind of summit of European leaders?

French President Emmanuel Macron organized an emergency meeting with EU leaders after the US announced the start of negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine without the participation of Europe and Kyiv.

Participants included European Council President António Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Danish, Spanish and Polish Prime Ministers Mette Frederiksen, Pedro Sanchez and Donald Tusk, as well as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with French President Macron after his meeting with European leaders.

"We have a common vision: there must be reliable, strong security guarantees. Any other solution without such guarantees, for example, a fragile ceasefire, will be just another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European countries," the Ukrainian president said.

The leaders also discussed the global situation, the situation in Europe, and agreed to be in constant contact.

Europeʼs participation in the settlement of the war in Ukraine

After the US President Donald Trump reported that during a phone call with Putin they agreed to immediately begin peace talks, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and the European Union stressed in a statement that Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

During the Munich Security Conference, Trumpʼs special envoy Keith Kellogg said that Europe would not be physically at the negotiating table between Russia and Ukraine, but its interests would be taken into account. He added that one of the reasons why previous peace talks failed was that they involved too many countries.

The Axios publication, which revealed the details of the conversation between Zelensky and Trump, noted that the US president supported the idea of deploying European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine — this could become one of the security guarantees.

After that, the AP wrote that a group of European countries were privately working on a plan to send troops to Ukraine to help with post-war security.

The FT noted that the US has asked European countries to provide detailed proposals for the weapons, peacekeeping troops and security measures they could provide to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees. The United States wants to calculate Europeʼs willingness to defend Ukraine after a peaceful settlement, to determine the price Europe is willing to pay in exchange for participating in negotiations with Moscow.

• The discussion about the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine began in early 2024, after statements by French President Emmanuel Macron. In February, he said that in the future, sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine should not be ruled out. And in June, a number of media outlets, citing sources, wrote that Macron was looking for allies to send instructors to Ukraine and wanted to create a coalition. The EU did not officially support this idea.

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