French President Emmanuel Macron, at an emergency meeting of EU leaders in Paris, proposed deploying European peacekeeping forces behind the future demarcation line in Ukraine, rather than directly on it.
The Financial Times (FT) writes about this.
However, in response, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland have spoken out against sending troops. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called such a discussion “highly inappropriate and completely premature” as the war in Ukraine is still ongoing.
"The discussion is completely premature, and now is not the best time for it," Scholz said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told fellow leaders that she was hesitant about sending European troops to Ukraine, calling it the “most complex and least effective” option.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “prepared to consider sending British troops into Ukraine, along with others, if a long-term peace deal is reached”. However, he added that this would require US support, as a security guarantee from the United States is the only effective way to deter Russia from attacking again.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “open to discussing many different things”, such as troop deployment.
Spain expressed skepticism about sending troops to Ukraine ahead of the Paris summit.
“Right now, no one is considering the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine,” said Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Álvarez.
- 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.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.