 "Starmer to present Trump plan to deploy European peacekeepers in Ukraine: Report")
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will next week present a plan to US President Donald Trump for the deployment of European peacekeepers to Ukraine, according to a report.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Washington DC next week to meet Trump. The Russian war on Ukraine and how to end it is expected to be the main agenda of their talks. The exact dates of the visit are not yet known.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that the plan has been prepared by British and French government and proposes to deploy fewer than 30,000 peacekeepers to Ukraine to enforce any ceasefire agreed to by Ukraine and Russia.
The report comes at a time when Ukraine and Europe have been rattled by Trump’s support to Russia instead of Ukraine Trump has been negotiating with Russia directly and has left Ukraine and Europe to their own fate in the wake of unprecedented Russian aggression. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a “dictator” and falsely claiming that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
How British-French peacekeeping proposal works
Under the plan drafted by British and French governments, fewer than 30,000 soldiers will be deployed in Ukraine as peacekeepers, according to The Telegraph.
The report comes days after Starmer said in a newspaper article that he would deploy British soldiers to Ukraine if needed. Macron has made similar commitments in the past. Germany, Spain, and Italy, have, however, opposed such deployment.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThese soldiers will be deployed Ukrainian cities, ports, and other critical infrastructure sites, such as nuclear power stations, according to the plan.
The newspaper reported that the plan was drafted during an emergency meeting of European leaders called by Macron earlier this week.
Instead of deploying a much bigger force, the British-French plan relies on “technical monitoring”, including intelligence; surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft; drones; and satellites to provide a “complete picture of what is going on”, a Western official told the newspaper.
To enable Ukraine’s airspace to operate commercial flights again, the peacekeeping force would be backed up by enough firepower to “monitor and shoot those attacks down”, the official furhter said.
The newspaper also reported that the plan includes naval patrol vessels depliyed in the Black Sea to monitor Russian threats to commercial shipping routes.
While Starmer is expected to propose a peacekeeping force of fewer than 30,000 soldiers, Zelenskyy had previously sought a deployment of around 200,000 personnel.
Starmer expected to ask Trump to support plan
While the United States is not supposed to be part of the peacekeeping force, Starmer is expected to urge Trump to keep US fighter planes and missiles stationed in eastern European countries to respond with lethal force in case Russia violates ceasefire, according to The Telegraph.
The purpose of such a “US backstop” is to deter Russia from breaking the deal, as per the newspaper.
These warplanes are expected to be stationed in Romania and Poland.
The plan further says that a large multinational force could also be deployed in a Nato member in eastern Ukraine so that it could be moved to Ukraine if needed.
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