French President Emmanuel Macron said that France, Great Britain and other countries, providing security guarantees for Ukraine after any possible ceasefire, will not be aimed at deploying a "mass" of soldiers, but instead may send several thousand contingents to key locations in Ukraine without Russia's permission, UNN writes with reference to The Guardian.
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The French president told regional French newspapers, including Le Parisien and La Dépêche de Midi, that "several European countries, and even non-European ones," have "expressed their willingness" to join a possible deployment in Ukraine to ensure a future peace agreement with Russia.
He said that this could involve "several thousand troops" from each state, deployed in "key points" in Ukraine, to conduct training programs and to "show our long-term support".
Macron added in an interview on Saturday that the proposed contingents from countries that are members of the NATO alliance would serve as a "security guarantee" for Ukraine and that "several European countries, as well as non-European ones, have expressed their willingness to join such efforts when it is confirmed".
He added: "Ukrainians cannot in any way make territorial concessions without having any security guarantees".
Moscow has strongly opposed such a deployment, but Macron said that Russia's permission is not needed. He said that Ukraine is sovereign. "If Ukraine asks for allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them," Macron said.
Macron will meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday, and then travel to Berlin on Tuesday to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talks on Ukraine ahead of the EU summit.
British Prime Minister Kier Starmer on Saturday chaired a virtual meeting of 30 international leaders, including Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as leaders from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. After that, Starmer called on Putin to sign a ceasefire if he is serious about peace. He said that allies will continue to increase pressure on the Kremlin, including by moving the issue of planning peacekeeping forces to the "operational phase".
After the meeting on Saturday, Macron said that Europe and the United States must put pressure on Russia to agree to the proposed ceasefire. Russia "does not give the impression that it sincerely wants peace," Macron said in a statement to Agence France-Presse. On the contrary, the Russian president "was building up hostilities" and "wants to get everything and then negotiate," he said.
"Russia must give a clear answer, and the pressure must be clear together with the United States to achieve this ceasefire," Macron said.
