France and the UK are still insisting that troops from NATO countries must be deployed to Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal, an idea that Russia has repeatedly rejected.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a virtual meeting on Tuesday night of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” referring to countries willing to deploy troops to post-war Ukraine. According to POLITICO, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part in the call and told the European officials that the US wants a peace deal before agreeing to any security guarantees for Ukraine.
Starmer said during the meeting that a “multinational force” will play a “vital” role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that British officials said the UK has already identified the military units it would send into Ukraine after “a series of reconnaissance visits in the country.”
During the meeting on Tuesday, Macron suggested that the troops could be deployed in Kyiv and in parts of western Ukraine, so they’re not near the front lines. But Russian officials have made clear they wouldn’t accept any organized NATO force in Ukraine, regardless of where it’s located.
The original 28-point Ukraine peace proposal drafted by the US, which was leaked to the media, included a blanket ban on the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine. A European counterproposal removed the total ban and says NATO would agree not to “permanently station troops under its command in Ukraine in peacetime,” leaving open the possibility of rotational deployments.
During talks with Ukrainian officials on Sunday, Rubio significantly altered the initial US proposal, but the exact changes aren’t clear, although The New York Times reported that he removed the section that would bar Ukraine from joining NATO, one of Russia’s main demands for a peace deal.
