European leaders are considering the creation of a 40 kilometer (25 mile) buffer zone between the Russian and Ukrainian front lines as part of a postwar or ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, Politico reported on Friday, Aug. 28.
Citing five unnamed European diplomats, Politico wrote that the buffer zone proposal is one of several being mulled by military and civilian officials as they become increasingly desperate to find a resolution to the conflict.
The US is reportedly not involved in discussions about a potential buffer zone, while European officials disagree about how deep the zone could be.
It is also unclear whether Kyiv would agree to the hypothetical proposal, as it would likely involve concessions of territory.
President Volodymyr Zelensky had rejected the idea in the past, saying: “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial issue is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will and cannot deviate from this. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
Sources suggest that Moscow has embraced the idea, in line with previous announcements by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Kremlin deputies that they will create a “security buffer zone” along the Russian border with Ukraine.
“They’re grasping for straws,” Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon official, told Politico of the proposal by European allies.
“The Russians are not afraid of the Europeans. And if they think that a couple of British and French observers are going to deter them from marching into Ukraine, then they’re wrong.”
European diplomats have compared a potential partition to the division of Germany during the Cold War, Politico reported, avoiding likening it to the heavily guarded divide between North and South Korea.
Blocking off a significant strip of land could also pose the problem of overstretching Europe’s supply of peacekeeping troops to patrol the border.
Officials are discussing dispatching somewhere between 4,000 and 60,000 troops, Politico writes, noting that NATO is already struggling to mobilize a response force of 300,000 troops to defend the alliance’s eastern flank from future Russian aggression.
European allies are reportedly holding off on making public commitments on the number of troops they might provide until key details have been established.
There remain questions about rules of engagement for NATO troops on the front line, how to manage a Russian escalation, and whether third countries would need to send peacekeepers to patrol the buffer area if the Kremlin objects to the presence of alliance forces, according to the officials.
Two of the diplomats stated that any peacekeeping force would be expected to both patrol the demilitarized zone and train Ukrainian troops, in line with previous reports.
However, European allies still anticipate that Ukraine will provide the bulk of troops near any ceasefire or buffer zone, according to one European official who spoke to the paper.
Some allies also reportedly expressed concerns that a buffer zone could put some Ukrainian cities at further risk of attack or reinvasion, citing Putin’s unwillingness to end the war.
“It’s not very sensible against an adversary who is not negotiating in good will,” one of the European officials said.
The proposal is symptomatic of Europe’s desperation for Russia and Ukraine to rapidly broker a deal for peace with the oversight of US President Donald Trump, Politico reported.
“Everyone is trying to move as quickly as possible on security guarantees so Trump doesn’t change his mind,” one of the European officials said.
It comes as Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing at least 23, including four children, in a huge aerial strike on Kyiv overnight on Aug.28.
The Trump administration gave a cryptic response to the attacks, saying that the US president was “not happy” about the overnight strike, but that he was also “not surprised.”
“These are two countries that have been at war for a very long time,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, drawing parallels between the aerial assault and Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian infrastructure, which have taken out “20% of Russia’s oil refinery capacity.”
Earlier this week, it was reported that the US could provide intelligence assets, air defense support, and battlefield oversight to help Europe enforce a peace settlement in Ukraine.
This would allow the US to carry out satellite monitoring of the ceasefire and coordinate the cluster of European and other nations who have committed to putting boots on the ground in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.