The Times: British Prime Minister announces plan for number of peacekeepers in Ukraine

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlined plans for a Western peacekeeping contingent for Ukraine at an online meeting of the "coalition of the willing" on March 15.

This is reported by The Times.

Starmer has now secured the support of a “significantly larger number” of countries, senior sources told the publication. Three countries initially offered to provide ground troops. The UK and France are expected to provide the main forces.

According to The Times’ military sources, the size of the future contingent “will comfortably exceed 10 000 people”. In total, about 35 countries have agreed to provide weapons, logistical and intelligence support to the mission. The allies hope that in the event of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, their actions will deter Putin from new aggression.

Following the “coalition of the willing” talks, Keir Starmer declared a meeting of world military leaders in London “this week”. The politician stressed that plans to deploy peacekeepers to Ukraine were moving into the “operational phase”.

Peacekeeping troops in Ukraine

After the US and Russia negotiated to end the war in Ukraine without the participation of Europe and Kyiv, an emergency meeting of EU leaders was called in France. One of the key issues was sending troops to Ukraine to monitor the ceasefire. This was the main argument that evening.

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed deploying a European peacekeeping force behind the future demarcation line in Ukraine, rather than directly on it. Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland immediately opposed the idea. In return, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country was ready to deploy troops to Ukraine and support the peace agreement with “ boots on the ground and planes in the sky”.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces Thomas Süssli said he could send troops for a future peacekeeping mission in Ukraine if requested and the government is not against it. Irish Prime Minister Michaël Martin said his country was also ready to send peacekeepers to Ukraine for post-war security. Denmark is also ready for this, as is Australia, as noted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever believes it is logical for Brussels to send troops to Ukraine. Sweden does not rule out such a possibility.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian parliament has adopted a declaration that the Bulgarian Armed Forces will not participate in hostilities in Ukraine. And in Romania, they have admitted that they could become a transit center for troops for Western peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, although the parliament does not support this position of interim President Iliye Bologyan.

Bloomberg, citing sources, writes that Turkey could deploy its peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, but will not do so unless it is involved in all consultations and preparations for the formation of a peacekeeping mission.

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