Nearly 40,000 Western military troops are ready to be deployed in Ukraine. This was announced by the well-known Politiko magazine, which quotes senior European officials. It seems that this plan is expected to be discussed during the meeting that French President Emmanuel Macron will hold with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday.
"It is true," the EU diplomat confirmed when asked about a Polish media report claiming the two countries were talking about a possible 40,000-strong peacekeeping force made up of troops from foreign countries. The diplomat did not give details about which countries the soldiers might come from.
The meeting of two key European leaders comes amid growing fears that the incoming administration of Donald Trump will force Europeans to take on more of the military responsibilities in Ukraine.
However, a senior Polish official said they were surprised by Macron's reported proposal.
"This is not a formula that would allow us to take such a decision," the French official said, adding that peacekeeping missions should be placed under the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, not a bilateral discussion with the president. french. Sending Polish troops to Ukraine "would only make sense in a NATO format," the sources told Politico.
The peacekeeping force proposal is separate from Macron's earlier idea to send military instructors to Ukraine during the ongoing war.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy apparently referred to such a plan when he met with Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany.
"It is very clear that ending the war and winning peace is only possible when Ukraine is in NATO and the EU," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told POLITICO.
The Elysée presidential palace said in a statement that Macron was traveling to Poland to discuss Ukraine "in a new transatlantic context". A spokesman for Macron did not provide a comment for this story. (A2 Televizion)
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