On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and discussed the idea of a possible deployment of French troops to Ukraine as part of a potential future security guarantee.
Zelensky said he and Macron discussed “achieving peace and developing effective security guarantees.”
The Ukrainian president wrote on X: “As one such guarantee, we discussed the French initiative to deploy military contingents in Ukraine. We addressed practical steps for its implementation, potential expansion, and the involvement of other nations in this effort.”
Russia would never agree to a NATO deployment in Ukraine as part of a potential future peace plan since one of its main demands for a deal is Ukrainian neutrality.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that President-elect Donald Trump had suggested European troops should be sent to Ukraine to monitor a future ceasefire. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already rejected the idea, saying Moscow wasn’t “satisfied” with the proposal.
Last year, Macron was calling for a NATO troops deployment to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers and said at one point that he was “finalizing” a plan. But he appeared to back down after warnings from Russia that any French troops would be considered legitimate targets.
The Discord leaks revealed that as of March 2023, there were a small number of NATO special operations forces inside Ukraine, including 15 French troops. But what Macron had been calling for was a larger, public deployment to Ukraine.
Source: AntiWar.
