The UK, France, and the other European countries involved in the ‘coalition of the willing’ are still hoping for security guarantees from the United States
Defense ministers from around 30 countries are meeting at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the possible deployment of troops in Ukraine to police a future peace agreement with Russia.
The meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” comes after senior British and French military officers, including the chief of the UK defence staff, Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, visited Kyiv last week.
The United States—which is seeking to broker a cease-fire and a permanent peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine—will not be represented at Thursday’s meeting.
British Defence Secretary John Healey and French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu are hosting the meeting.
The British Ministry of Defence issued a statement in advance of the meeting, noting that Healey would say, “We cannot jeopardize the peace by forgetting about the war, so we must put even more pressure on Putin and step up our support for Ukraine, both in today’s fight and the push for peace.”
“Our commitment is to put Ukraine in the strongest position to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and deter future Russian aggression,” the statement said.
The UK, France, and the other European countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” are still hoping for security guarantees from the United States in the event of a peacekeeping operation in Ukraine, something President Donald Trump has been unwilling to provide.
Trump has been discussing a deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which the United States would share in the profits of Ukraine’s mining of rare minerals.
He has said that the deal, and the presence of U.S. mining companies in Ukraine, would deter Russia.
“We will be on the land, and that way, there is going to be automatic security because nobody is going to be messing around with our people,” Trump said on Feb. 26.
However, Zelenskyy has been hesitant to finalize an agreement for his country’s resources without firm U.S. security guarantees.
Last month, Zelenskyy said Kyiv needed security guarantees to achieve a “real, fair peace” and to bring the war with Russia to an end.
