Participants of the Paris summit did not reach a unanimous agreement on deploying military forces to Ukraine as part of a so-called peacekeeping mission, and the format of such a mission remains undecided, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
"These support forces were offered by France and the UK. They will be represented by several countries because it was not possible to achieve unity on this issue. Some do not have the opportunity, others are hindered by the political context," Macron said, adding, however, that London and Paris "do not need unity" to implement their plans.
The French president acknowledged that the format of the "support forces" would also require additional discussions.
The summit of the "coalition of the willing" in Paris did not decide to send a so-called stabilization mission to Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the meeting.
"Today, there was no goal to make any decisions on sending a stabilization mission to Ukraine," Tusk said at a press conference broadcast by TVP Info.
"Now is not the time to specify these plans, while there are no preliminary results of the US-Russian negotiations."
At the same time, Tusk noted that "it is already clear that the United Kingdom, France and some other countries" are ready to send a mission in Ukraine to "monitor the observance of peace." The Polish prime minister also called for an end to speculation about the possible participation of the Polish military in such a mission.
Earlier, British media reported that Britain and France hope to form a "peacekeeping corps" numbering from 10,000 to 30,000 troops, ostensibly to ensure a peace agreement on Ukraine. On March 20, a meeting of the military leaders of the countries of the "coalition of the willing" was held in London, where the operational details of sending troops to Ukraine were discussed.
On February 18, US President Donald Trump said he wasn’t opposed to a European contingent going to Ukraine, but Washington would not send its troops there.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on March 12 that the presence of NATO troops under any flag and in any capacity on Ukrainian soil is a threat to Russia. According to him, Russia will not accept this under any circumstances.
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kraine’s European allies did not all agree on Thursday 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 on Thursday.
ReplyDelete“It is not unanimous,” he said after wrapping up a summit on strengthening Kyiv’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 US President Donald Trump to end the fighting.
ReplyDeleteGerman Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, signaled willingness to help secure peace in Ukraine with boots on the ground — at least in theory.
ReplyDelete"I can't imagine any situation in which Germany would not be participating in whatever would be the result of negotiations of a ceasefire or even a peace,” said Pistorius at an event jointly organized by several media outlets on Thursday in Berlin.
“But it has to be decided when the time has come and it depends on so many parameters, like: How many troops will be anyway accepted in the ceasefire? What could be the mandate? Who is taking part in it? This is nothing we should discuss publicly on the market places before it's even clear whether we will have a ceasefire or not," he added.
European countries agreed at a summit in Paris Thursday to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.
ReplyDeletePresident Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine’s European allies and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the latest effort to agree a coordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.
European countries agreed at a summit in Paris Thursday to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.
ReplyDeletePresident Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine’s European allies and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the latest effort to agree a coordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.
As well as boosting Ukraine’s own armed forces, a key pillar of ensuring security and preventing further Russian invasions could be to deploy European troops to Ukraine, although until now it has been far from clear how this could happen.
ReplyDeleteMacron said after the summit France and Britain were leading efforts to send a “reassurance force” to Ukraine after any end to the fighting.
Macron emphasized that members of such a force would not be peacekeepers, deployed on the front line or any kind of substitute for the Ukrainian army.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he said, not all of Ukraine’s European allies would be represented in the force, with some states not “having the capacity” and some reluctant due to the “political context.”
The Franco-British delegation would begin talks over where such a force could be deployed.
It would have the “character of deterrence against any potential Russian aggression,” he said.
The European Union committed to delivering 2 million artillery shells, worth 5 billion euros, at the Summit on Peace and Security in Ukraine held today in Paris, at which the EU was represented by the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
ReplyDeleteDer geschäftsführende Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz hat vor dem Treffen der "Koalition der Willigen" in Paris eindringlich davor gewarnt, die Sanktionen gegen Russland vorzeitig aufzuheben. "Das wäre ein schwerer Fehler", sagte Scholz am Donnerstag in der französischen Hauptstadt. Stattdessen forderte er, dass die Sanktionen "fortgeführt und weiterentwickelt" werden müssten. Europa und auch die USA müssten gemeinsam einen "klaren Standpunkt" vertreten, um die Ukraine weiterhin zu unterstützen, so Scholz.
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