UK and France agree to send troops to Ukraine

The United Kingdom and France have agreed to deploy forces in Ukraine if it strikes a peace deal with Russia, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, in a renewed push by Western leaders to guarantee Kyiv's post-war security and deter Moscow from further aggression, reports CNN. 

After officials from 35 countries gathered in Paris for a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a "declaration of intent" to put British and French boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal - a move Russia has long staunchly opposed. 

"Following a ceasefire, the UK and France will establish military hubs across Ukraine and build protected facilities for weapons and military equipment to support Ukraine's defensive needs," Starmer said at a joint news conference alongside European leaders, as well as US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law. 

Tuesday's meeting - the largest since the coalition was founded last spring - had risked being overshadowed by the US' toppling of Venezuela's authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, as well as by Trump's coveting of Greenland, the vast autonomous Arctic territory ruled by Denmark. Just days after the Venezuela raid, Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller underlined the administration's claims on the island, telling CNN that Greenland should "obviously" be a part of the US and that "nobody is going to fight the United States" over its future. 

Before the meeting, analysts had questioned whether the US could be trusted to guarantee Ukraine's security while it is threatening to occupy the territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO member. 

But, despite Washington's sharp pivot toward the Western hemisphere, Witkoff stressed that the Trump administration remains determined "to do everything possible" to bring peace to Ukraine, and said "a lot of progress" had been made in Paris.

 
"We think we're largely finished with security protocols, which are important, so that the people of Ukraine know that when this ends, it ends forever," the envoy said, referring to Russia's nearly four-year war. 

In an interview with CNN on the sidelines of the meeting, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Tuesday's meeting had been "very successful." 

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