UK and France’s discussion of peacekeeping troop deployment to Ukraine

Following any possible deal to bring Russia-Ukraine war to a conclusion, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been debating deploying UK and French troops to Ukraine as peacekeeping agents. The Telegraph reports this, referring to its sources.

Macron favors the concept and has discussed it with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Telegraph reported.

The Telegraph added that spokespersons for Downing Street and the Élysée Palace are not denying that Starmer and Macron talked about this possibility during their conversation at Chequers last week.

Officials in Paris and London are keeping the specifics of the chat under wraps. Nevertheless, some top sources within the UK government have highlighted that Starmer has not yet given the suggestion enough thought.

The Telegraph reported one Whitehall insider as saying, “There are challenges over what we could support, what we would want to support, and the broader question about the threat that those troops may be under and whether that is escalatory.”

Given US President-elect Donald Trump’s insistence that Kyiv must negotiate a peace agreement with Russia, this proposal arises as European leaders strive to decide how to keep backing Ukraine’s sovereignty.

The public stance of the UK government is that Western allies have to provide Ukraine as much support as they can, but Ukrainians should choose when and whether to start peace negotiations.

Ministers and officials privately believe Trump will exert pressure on Russia and Ukraine to attend negotiations. There is currently a continuous effort to map out the future paths.

The topic of whether Western forces could ensure any peace deals is increasingly being discussed both in public and behind closed doors in Westminster.

Though there is considerable uncertainty about this possibility, the debates center on Russia’s potential keeping of the Ukrainian regions it captured as part of a peace agreement.

Should this happen, European officials are discussing the best ways to prevent any future Russian attack on Ukraine’s main territory.

During their previous meeting at the UK Prime Minister’s country residence, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer primarily discussed Ukraine.

November saw reports of Starmer and Macron one-on-one for twenty minutes discussing Ukraine during the visit of the UK prime minister to Paris.

By the end of 2024, discussions about the possibility of stationing a contingent of European allies in Ukraine as a deterrent against a further Russian war accelerated under Macron’s initiative.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted that pre-Christmas meetings in Brussels had indeed covered such a concept and that he had already “seen positive responses” from several leaders.

Starting a meeting at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany on January 9, Zelenskyy said he thought one of the finest strategies to force Russia to peace was the deployment of international troops in Ukraine.