British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will present to the US President Donald Trump a plan to deploy about 30 000 European troops to Ukraine to maintain a ceasefire.
This is reported by The Telegraph, citing sources.
The British prime minister is expected to detail how European troops could enforce any ceasefire brokered by the the US president during a meeting in Washington next week.
At the same time, he will urge Trump to keep American fighter jets and missiles on standby in Eastern Europe to respond if Russia violates the terms of any ceasefire.
According to the Anglo-French plan, about 30 000 troops under the leadership of European countries would be stationed in Ukrainian cities, ports and other critical infrastructure facilities, such as nuclear power plants, far from the current front line.
Rather than deploying a much larger contingent, the mission will rely on “technical monitoring”, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, drones and satellites, to provide “a complete picture of what’s happening”, the Western official said.
The source added that the operation would be backed by sufficient firepower to “track and shoot down these attacks” — this would allow Ukraine’s airspace to be reopened and commercial flights to be possible.
Naval patrol ships will also be sent to the Black Sea to monitor Russian threats to commercial shipping lanes.
This support could include American fighter jets stationed in Romania and Poland, ready to respond to any future Russian aggression.
A much larger multinational ground contingent could also be based on NATOʼs eastern borders, which could be deployed to protect European troops in Ukraine if necessary.
- 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.
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