European leaders decide on possibly sending peacekeepers into Ukraine
State flags of Ukraine, European Union and U.S. flutter in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec 6, 2021. (File photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)
PARIS/RIYADH: Britain said it was ready to send peacekeeping troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal as European leaders gathered on Monday (Feb 17) to agree on a unified strategy, while Russian and US officials prepared to meet for their own talks to try to end the conflict.
The emergency European summit in Paris came together after President Donald Trump's US administration, Kyiv's main military backer, announced it would sit down with Russia to seek an end to the war. Russia has ruled out conceding territory, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed the US-Russia talks taking place without him.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's comments on Sunday reflect a realisation among European nations that they will have to do more to ensure Ukraine's security. Washington has made clear that Europe must stop relying on the US for its defence.
A peacekeeping force would not only raise the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but also stretch European armies, whose arsenals have been depleted by supplying Ukraine and decades of relative peace.
There are also difficult questions about how some European nations, whose public finances are groaning, will pay for such expanded military commitments.
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European leaders including Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte were welcomed to the Élysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who had already spoken with Trump.
Germany said it "will not shy away" from contributing ground troops, but that no concrete agreements were expected in Paris.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there was "absolutely a possibility" of sending Swedish peacekeepers, if and when there was a clear mandate. The Dutch government over the weekend also signalled it could contribute, given a clear mandate and a pledge of US support in any escalation.
However, Ukraine's neighbour Poland, which has NATO's third largest army, said it would not provide troops, while Spain said it was too early for such an offer.
Political analyst Aurel Braun told CNA's Asia First programme that this was a "virtually desperate attempt" by European leaders, particularly in Western Europe, to "remain relevant as Trump is busy disrupting the international system".
"The Europeans should not have been caught off guard," said the professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto.
"There had been warnings about European defence, not only by Mr Trump but many other presidents. The Europeans somehow worked under the belief that the United States was going to defend the continent no matter what."
Braun cautioned that Europe is "not united", with Monday's meeting being called by the French president and not the European Union. Scholz also left early.
"The big question is, can Europe do it on its own? And I would suggest they cannot - that the United States is the indispensable power and that the US needs to continue to provide that massive nuclear umbrella, extended deterrence," Braun added.
"The Europeans are not capable to do that from the perspective of nuclear deterrence, because only two countries in Europe have a nuclear arsenal. And combined, those arsenals do not match anywhere close to what Russia has."
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US AND RUSSIA TO MEET IN SAUDI ARABIA
Trump stunned Ukraine and European allies last week when he announced he had called Russian President Vladimir Putin, long ostracised by the West, to discuss ending the war without consulting them.
Senior US and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The highest-level in-person discussions between the nations in years are meant to precede a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh as well as national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, also part of the US negotiating team.
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But there were signs of differences of approach.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the conversation would determine if the Russians were serious about peace talks, "about perhaps if that first step is even possible". For its part, the Kremlin said the talks would focus on "restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations".
As fighting rages on, with Russia making slow but steady advances, Lavrov ruled out ceding any of the 20 per cent of Ukraine it now controls.
"Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise ... any agreements about us, without us," he told reporters.
Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said on Saturday Europe would not have a seat at the negotiating table. But he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday that it would be for Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine to decide whether to accept any deal.
Washington has already sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they can contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv, and who is ready to deploy troops.
Asked if Washington would provide a backstop for European support, Kellogg said: "You take no options off the table."
EUROPEAN LEADERS SEEK TO INFLUENCE US-RUSSIA DEAL
The 27-nation EU has held a host of summits on Ukraine but has been unable to bring the war's end closer as Russia has resisted an unprecedented barrage of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
The French presidency said the Paris talks would consider "the security guarantees that can be given by the Europeans and the Americans, together or separately", with peacekeepers just one element.
Britain is not an EU member but has been a leading supporter of Ukraine. Diplomats say it and France, Europe's leading military powers, have been discussing options for supporting a ceasefire since November.
He said Britain was ready to play a leading role in delivering security guarantees for Ukraine, including being ready to put "our own troops on the ground if necessary".
"The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
