A relatively small contingent of Western troops could successfully provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, U.K. defense sources told the Guardian on Feb. 18.
Previously, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Guardian that European partners would need to station 100,000 to 150,000 troops on Ukraine's front lines to effectively deter Russia.
A much smaller European-led peacekeeping force could rely on intelligence, surveillance, and long-range monitoring to enforce a ceasefire rather than large numbers of troops on the ground, unnamed U.K. defense sources said.
Such a force could number in the tens of thousands, or even fewer, sources said.
In one proposed alternative scenario, long-range monitoring replaced European troops altogether.
Other U.K. military sources said that in the most likely scenario, the U.K. would contribute one or two brigades to the European peacekeeping effort in Ukraine. A brigade consists of a few thousand soldiers.
European leaders will convene in France on Feb. 19 for a high-level summit on Ukrainian security. The meeting is the second emergency summit on the topic that Paris has hosted this week and comes one day after U.S. and Russian officials met for talks in Saudi Arabia that excluded Ukraine and Europe altogether.
During the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow would not accept the deployment of any NATO troops in Ukraine after a ceasefire deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been the leading voice behind the proposal of European ground troops as an alternative security guarantee for Ukraine. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signaled willingness to deploy British troops as part of such a plan.
Participating European nations could send between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers to Ukraine, the Washington Post (WP) reported on Feb. 17, citing unnamed sources familiar with the discussions.
U.K. sources would not confirm this figure while talks were underway, but indicated to the Guardian that a force of that size was more likely than Zelensky's proposed number.
Starmer will visit Washington, D.C. next week, where he is expected to press U.S. President Donald Trump to provide more security assurances for Kyiv to support the European peacekeeping effort.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants Europe to shoulder the burden of funding and monitoring Ukrainian security.
Oleg Sukhov
(Updated: )
