UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine if needed, hours before European leaders were due to meet in Paris on Monday, February 17, to address Washington’s shock policy shift on the war.
US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about beginning negotiations to end the conflict. With Trump saying he could meet Putin “very soon,” European leaders are hastening to Paris for top-level talks on the continent’s security.
Describing a “once in a generation moment,” Starmer said he was willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary”.
“Any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country,” he wrote in conservative UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph on Sunday.
European stances
Following Starmer’s declaration, Germany said on Monday that it was “premature” to discuss sending its troops to war-torn Ukraine as part of any potential peacekeeping force. “We have repeatedly stated that, first of all, we have to wait and see whether and how peace will hopefully emerge for Ukraine,” German deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told reporters in Berlin. “Then we will be able to talk about the conditions and how this can be implemented.”
Sweden said that it would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine if necessary, with Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard telling public radio station Sveriges Radio on Monday: “We must first now negotiate a fair and sustainable peace that respects international law, that respects Ukraine and that ensures above all else that Russia can’t just withdraw and regroup and attack Ukraine or another country within a few years. When we have such a peace in place, it will need to be maintained and for that our government is not ruling out anything.”
Poland said that it was not planning to send troops to Ukraine to ensure security but would instead provide financial and military aid to the war-torn country. “When it comes to Poland’s support, the matter is settled… We are not planning to send Polish troops to Ukrainian territory,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters, before flying to Paris for the meeting of European leaders.
Leaders from the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark are expected at the Paris meeting, which falls ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the European Union’s 27 nations, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte will also be present.
The French presidency said the meeting would address “the situation in Ukraine” and “security in Europe”. “Because of the acceleration of the Ukrainian issue, and as a result of what US leaders are saying, there is a need for Europeans to do more, better and in a coherent way, for our collective security,” an adviser from President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.
Source: Le Monde
