European countries may deploy “a sizable force” to central Ukraine “somewhere along the Dnipro River” and away from the front once a peace deal is reached, a French official told the Associated Press (AP).
Other options under consideration include stationing peacekeeping forces in western Ukraine or a neighboring country, the source said.
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French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out deploying European peacekeepers along the front lines, saying that their presence is not intended to provoke any form of confrontation with Russia.
However, Macron said that European peacekeepers, if deployed, would be prepared to respond to any aggression.
“If there was again a generalized aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would, in fact, be under attack, and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” Macron said after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.
“Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it.”
On Thursday, March 27, Macron hosted a summit with European leaders, including Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.
“This is Europe mobilizing together behind the peace process on a scale that we haven’t seen for decades, backed by partners from around the world,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said after the summit.
Full Statement (Translated): UK, France and Germany After Moscow Talks
Macron and Starmer’s plan outlines a 30-day truce in the air and at sea, along with a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. A peacekeeping force would be deployed in a second phase.
Zelensky said he expected “strong decisions” from the Paris summit. Among the attendees were Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Bloomberg said European nations could send up to 30,000 troops to Ukraine.
However, senior military sources in the British military reportedly dismissed Starmer’s proposal to send a peacekeeping contingent to Ukraine as part of a “coalition of the willing,” calling the plan “political theater.”
“Starmer got ahead of himself with talk of boots on the ground before he knew what he was talking about,” one senior military source told The Telegraph Sunday evening.
A small contingent of about 10,000 troops, they noted, stationed far from the front line in the west, would not be able to defend itself against 700,000 Russian troops in Ukraine.
“There are about 700,000 Russians in and around Ukraine and over a million Ukrainians under arms,” another source said.
“What is a 10,000-international force based in the west of the country, over 400 kilometers [249 miles] from the front line meant to do?”
“It cannot even protect itself. What is the mission? What is its legitimacy? No one knows,” the source added.
Moscow has repeatedly opposed the presence of NATO or EU peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the deployment of European peacekeepers “unacceptable” for Moscow, while Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that such a move could lead to a direct NATO-Russia confrontation. Zakharova has accused France and the UK of disguising military intervention as a peacekeeping operation.
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