The United Kingdom is willing to help Ukraine rebuild its army and help patrol its skies and seas, but wouldn’t consider letting its troops get anywhere near the Russians, Britain is reported to be telling the ‘Coalition’ planning group.
As many as ten of the 31 countries that are party to the Coalition of the Willing multinational effort to provide a security force to Ukraine are actually ready to send troops to the country, Bloomberg claims while citing unnamed sources. The degree to which any theoretical supporters of the Coalition are willing to put their troops in harms way for Europe has long been an open question as a picture of the force emerges, particularly given even its most dedicated leaders, the United Kingdom and France, have been reluctant themselves.
Indeed, per The Guardian the United Kingdom government is to tell Coalition planning meetings at the Pentagon today that the major part of its contribution will be policing Ukraine’s skies with the Royal Air Force, defending airports and ports, and helping to defend Ukraine’s maritime domain. The land-based element will be more modest, with British troops well away from the front lines and involved in trainings Ukraine’s military, and providing logistical support.
While this reflects the UK’s traditional expertise in maritime and air, it is a far cry from the bullish remarks made by the minister of defence last week ahead of the Trump-Putin Alaska summit, when he said: “In the circumstances of a ceasefire we’re ready to put UK boots on the ground in Ukraine… They are ready to go, they’re ready to act from day one”.
In contrast France, the other key player in the coalition and which has given its capital Paris to be the international headquarters of the force, has largely avoided making such pronouncements. France’s President Emmanuel Macron has been notably circumspect when it comes to discussing what France’s contribution may look like.
Not shy about making their feelings known on these proceedings is Russia itself, against which these efforts to build a peacekeeping force are to be deployed.
One of the largest developments of recent days was U.S. President Donald Trump revealing on Monday that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had “agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine”. Yet what exactly was meant by this is far from clear, and comments from Russia since telegraph unease, rightly or wrongly, with a European multinational force turning up on its doorstep.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday claimed Western nations “understand perfectly well” that discussing security issues in Ukraine without Russia at the table is “a road to nowhere”. He said he wanted questions of “collective security” discussed collectively and decried what he described as a “fairly aggressive escalation of the situation” by “clumsy” European nations.
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