Britain and France have declared they are ready to deploy troops to Ukraine in the aftermath of a peace deal, a major new commitment that has been under discussion for months, although one which Russia is likely to block forcefully.
The announcement came after a summit in Paris hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and attended by more than two dozen leaders of the states that make up the “coalition of the willing” of Ukrainian allies, plus the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said the US president “strongly stands” behind the security protocols.
Macron, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the trilateral declaration of intent on Tuesday evening after hours of talks, which they said would pave the way for the deployment of French and British troops on Ukrainian soil. “Following a ceasefire, the UK and France will establish military hubs across Ukraine,” said Starmer.
However the planned ground force is unlikely to engage directly with Russian forces should Moscow relaunch an invasion of Ukraine. Macron made it clear that the goal of the force would be “to provide reassurance after the ceasefire” and noted it would be stationed “a long way behind the contact line”. There was no further clarity given immediately on the size or scope of the potential force.
Macron said the coalition had also drawn up a plan to take on “ceasefire monitoring commitments under American leadership” as well as “long-term support to Ukrainian armed forces who are and will remain in the frontline of defence”.
Answering a question about whether the US would come to the aid of European forces if they were attacked in Ukraine, Witkoff said the security guarantees were “as strong as anyone has ever seen” and were meant to “deter any further attacks […] if there are any attacks they’re meant to defend. And they will do both.”
He added: “The president does not back down from his commitments, he is strong for the country of Ukraine and for a peace deal. We will be there for the Ukrainians in helping them to get to that final peace,” said Witkoff.
Witkoff and Kushner were in Paris representing the US after the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who had been due to attend the talks, pulled out after Trump’s Venezuela attack.
The talks in Paris came as Trump’s attention shifts from Ukraine to Venezuela, and as his repeated threats to annex Greenland are causing friction in the US-Europe relationship. Several questions at a joint press conference following the signing revolved around whether Europe could trust US security guarantees at a time when Trump was threatening another Nato member with military action.
Separately, US and Ukrainian delegations have been trying to sign a bilateral peace agreement for weeks, which the White House would then take to Russia. Zelenskyy and others from the Ukrainian delegation were due to meet separately with Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday evening.
However, Zelenskyy said the issue of Ukraine giving up territory remained a sticking point in the talks. “We have a number of ideas that could be helpful,” he said, adding that if the negotiating teams could not come to an agreement, he was ready to discuss directly with Trump.
Witkoff agreed that territory “will be the most critical issue” in discussions. “Hopefully we’ll be able to come up with certain compromises,” he said.
Although Trump has repeatedly claimed that peace is just around the corner, there has been little sign that Moscow is ready for a deal, and Russian officials have repeatedly ruled out a temporary ceasefire or quick deal, saying they want a comprehensive settlement that addresses what they claim are the “root causes” of the conflict.
The Kremlin has also said it will categorically oppose any Nato soldiers being based on Ukrainian soil as part of any deal, and as Moscow appears to be content with continuing fighting for now, the prospect of a negotiated deal followed by a subsequent force deployment seems unlikely at least in the short term.
Starmer ackowledged that reality in his comments on Tuesday. “We are closer to [peace] than ever but of course the hardest yards are still ahead,” he said. “We can only get to a peace deal if Putin is ready to make compromises. Putin is not showing he is ready for peace,” he added.
The Paris meeting gathered an impressive roster of world leaders, with 27 heads of state or government coming to Paris for the talks. There were also a series of meetings on the sidelines of the summit, including of French, British, Ukrainian and Nato military chiefs.
Italy’s Georgia Meloni and Poland’s Donald Tusk said after the talks that their nations would not contribute troops to any mission to Ukraine. German chancellor Friedrich Merz said German troops could contribute to a force, but would be based in neighbouring countries, not inside Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy said he feared that “not everyone is ready” to commit forces to Ukraine, and conceded that intelligence sharing and weapons transfers were also crucial modes of support. However, he said British and French commitments to deploy forces would be essential for any security guarantees to have meaning.
“Speaking frankly as president, even the very existence of the coalition depends on whether certain countries are ready to step up their presence,” he said. “If they are not ready at all, then it is not really a ‘coalition of the willing.’”
