AFP: Six European countries ready to send troops to Ukraine

About six states, including Great Britain, France and the Baltic states, have declared their readiness to send their military to Ukraine to monitor the ceasefire during a meeting of the "Coalition of the Willing".

This was reported by European officials, Agence France Presse and Barronʼs report.

European defense ministers have held fresh talks on the potential deployment of their troops to Ukraine after Kyiv and Moscow reach a ceasefire deal. The discussions were led by Britain and France and joined by 30 other countries.

British Defense Minister John Healy stressed that the European peacekeeping force would not separate the Ukrainian and Russian armies on the contact line. Instead, they would support the Ukrainian Defense Forces. French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecornu added that the best guarantee of security would be to strengthen the Ukrainian army.

London and Paris insist that the countries have made progress during new rounds of talks – and now the military is stepping up work on how to ensure peace in the skies, at sea and on land.

However, ministers from other countries said there was still uncertainty about the objectives, mandate and support from the United States.

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 the sending of troops to Ukraine to monitor the ceasefire. This was the main argument of the evening.

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed deploying European peacekeeping forces behind the future demarcation line in Ukraine, rather than directly on it. Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland immediately opposed it. However, Germanyʼs defense minister later said he was open to the idea of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.

In turn, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his country was ready to deploy troops to Ukraine and support the peace agreements " 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 would be logical for Brussels to send troops to Ukraine. Sweden does not rule out such a possibility, as does the Czech Republic.

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 Boloyan.

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 the peacekeeping mission.

• Volodymyr Zelensky stated at a briefing on March 19 that the US position affects the position of European countries on the issue of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine. If the US joins the process, the number of countries that will be ready to send their contingent to Ukraine may increase. In addition, this affects the quantitative composition of the contingent of a particular country. Discussions are ongoing, so the president did not name the exact number of potential peacekeeping troops.

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