Ukraine’s European allies did not all agree on the proposed deployment of troops in the country to back up an eventual peace deal and only some want to take part, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
“It is not unanimous,” he said on Thursday after wrapping up a summit on strengthening Kiev’s hand and its military as it pushes for a ceasefire with Moscow. "We do not need unanimity to achieve it.”
Macron said France and Britain, which are driving the initiative, would forge ahead with a “reassurance force” with several countries.
The summit hosting the leaders of nearly 30 countries plus NATO and European Union chiefs comes at a crucial juncture in the more than three-year war, with intensifying diplomatic efforts to broker ceasefires, driven by pressure from United States President Donald Trump to end the fighting.
But the conflict is raging on.
Before the leaders met in the luxury of the French presidential palace, Russian drone attacks overnight wounded more than 20 people and heavy shelling Thursday afternoon killed one person and knocked out electricity in parts of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said.
US-brokered agreements this week to safeguard shipping in the Black Sea and last week to halt long-range strikes on energy infrastructure were greeted as a first step toward peace. But Ukraine and Russia have disagreed over the details and accused each other of deal violations, foreshadowing a long and contentious process ahead.
France and the United Kingdom are pushing a separate initiative to build a coalition of nations willing, in one way or another, to support the deployment of a European armed force in Ukraine to secure any peace deal by dissuading Russia from attacking the country again.
Some European countries are more comfortable with a potential deployment than others — not least because a big unknown is whether Trump would allow American forces and intelligence agencies to back up any European contingent with air and logistical support and other assistance.
Building a force big enough to act as a credible deterrent — UK officials have talked about possibly 10,000 to 30,000 troops — would also be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming.
There would also be questions to resolve about who would command the force and how it might respond to a major violation by Russia of any peace agreement.
The office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who's driving the European initiative together with Macron, said that military planners from Europe and beyond have been drilling down into details of how such a force might be put together, examining “the full range of European military capabilities including aircraft, tanks, troops, intelligence and logistics.”
Britain and France are leading efforts for a peacekeeping plan, with over 30 nations expected to participate.
A litmus test for Europe
In the face of enduring pressure from Trump on European nations to increase military spending and rely less on US forces, dating back to his first presidency, the proposed contingent is also seen as a test of Europe’s ability to defend itself and its interests.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted an image from inside the summit of him and other leaders standing together with the caption: “Europe knows how to defend itself. We must prove it.”
Macron said on Wednesday that the proposed European force could deploy to “important towns, strategic bases” in Ukraine and that it could “respond” to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.
Macron didn’t specify what sort of response he envisaged. But he suggested that a Russian attack might not go unanswered, even though the European troops wouldn't be deployed to the front lines.
“If there was again a generalised aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would, in fact, be under attack, and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” Macron said. “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.
“So we are not on the front lines, we don’t go to fight, but we are there to guarantee a lasting peace.
It’s a pacifist approach,” he said. “The only ones who would, at that moment, trigger a conflict, a bellicose situation, would be the Russians if they decided again to launch an aggression.”
Moscow insists that the truce is still in effect but demands sanctions relief.
