British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are discussing sending British and French soldiers to Ukraine as peacekeeping forces after any potential agreement to end the war. This was reported by The Telegraph, according to UNN.
Details
It is noted that Macron supports this idea and has already spoken about it with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland.
The newspaper also adds that Downing Street and Elysee Palace spokespeople do not deny that Starmer and Macron discussed this possibility during a meeting in Chequers last week.
Officials in London and Paris have kept the details of the conversations secret. However, numerous senior British government sources have emphasized that Starmer has not yet fully considered the deal.
The Telegraph quotes one of the Whitehall sources: “There are issues about what we could support, what we would like to support, and the wider question of the threat these troops might be exposed to and whether this is an escalation.
The proposal comes as European leaders are trying to decide how to continue to support Ukraine's sovereignty, as US President-elect Donald Trump insists that Kyiv should conclude a peace deal with Russia,
It is noted that the public position of the British government is that Western allies should provide Zelenskyy with as much support as possible, and Ukrainians should decide when and whether to hold peace talks.
In private conversations, ministers and officials are speculating that Trump will force Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, and attempts are being made to map out what will happen next.
One of the ideas that is now increasingly being discussed not only in public debate but also behind closed doors in Westminster is whether Western troops can guarantee any peace terms.
Speculation revolves around the idea that Russia could retain the Ukrainian territories it has seized as part of a peace deal-although there is much uncertainty about this prospect.
If this happens, European leaders are thinking about what can be done to ensure that the rest of Ukraine is protected from any future Russian attacks,
Recall
German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock announced her readiness to consider the participation of German peacekeepers in Ukraine. France and the United Kingdom are also discussing the possibility of deploying their troops to the front line.