LONDON — Military chiefs from about 30 Kyiv allies will hold a fresh “operational planning meeting” in London on Thursday to game out how they would commit peacekeeping troops to a post-war Ukraine.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the British-French-led talks after he hosted a call Saturday morning with the leaders of Ukraine, 25 other allied nations, NATO, the EU and the European Council — but not the U.S.
Starmer, with French President Emmanuel Macron, is pulling together a “coalition of the willing” of allied nations to protect Ukraine after any peace deal. But major questions remain about what that will look like if a deal is signed without U.S. aerial intelligence and air cover, as the U.K. and French leaders are lobbying the White House to provide.
Starmer told fellow leaders that allied nations should be “prepared to defend any deal ourselves.”
He added that he believed “sooner or later” Russian President Vladimir Putin would have to “come to the table and engage in serious discussion, but … we can’t sit back and simply wait for that to happen. We have to keep pushing forward and preparing for peace, and a peace that will be secure and that will last,” he said.
Yet in a Downing Street press conference Saturday, Starmer continued to insist that the plan would need a U.S. security backstop to work. “I’ve been clear that it needs to be done in conjunction with the United States,” he said. “The position on doing this in conjunction with the United States hasn’t changed.”
Militaries to game out details
Thursday’s military talks will be the second round likely to happen without Europe’s traditional U.S. ally, following discussions between senior military officials from 37 nations in Paris last Tuesday.
Starmer said the leaders on Saturday “agreed to accelerate our practical work to support a potential deal.” Thursday’s military meeting will aim to “put stronger robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security,” he said.
“Now is the time to engage in discussion on a mechanism to manage and monitor a full ceasefire,” the prime minister added.
Those joining Saturday’s call included the leaders of France, Finland, Poland, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Antonio Costa. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte spoke on the call.
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has positioned herself as a European bridge to U.S. President Donald Trump, also joined the call despite earlier reports that she would not take part. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also participated.
‘Not good enough’
The U.K. prime minister said Ukraine was “the party of peace” after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — who joined Saturday’s call — “committed to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.” By contrast, “Putin is the one trying to delay” a ceasefire, Starmer said.
In a televised address Thursday, Russia’s president laid out a raft of caveats for accepting the proposal put forward by the U.S. and Ukraine to end the Kremlin’s war. Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said Washington has “some cautious optimism” that a ceasefire deal could succeed.
“The ‘yes, but’ from Russia is not good enough,” said Starmer. He said his message to Putin was “that this is the moment the guns fall silent, that the barbaric attacks on Ukraine once and for all stop, and agree to a ceasefire now.”
The leaders also “discussed further sanctions that have got nothing to do with [frozen Russian] assets, which we will take forward as a result of this morning’s discussion,” Starmer said.
Zelenskyy told leaders “the path to peace must begin unconditionally. And if Russia doesn’t want this, then strong pressure must be applied until they do,” he posted on X.
Former White House adviser Fiona Hill, who is part of a team drafting Britain’s review of defense capability, warned this week that “there’s a genuine rupture in the relationship between the U.S. and its allies at this point.” She told the Foreign Affairs podcast that Putin’s behavior had made it “much more likely” that European countries, Japan and South Korea would be “rushing to get a nuclear weapon,” due to fears they can no longer rely on the U.S.
Von der Leyen posted on X following the call: “We reiterate our support to Ukraine’s agreement to a ceasefire. Now Russia has to show that it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace. In the meantime, we will support strengthening Ukraine and its armed forces following our ‘porcupine strategy’.”
The post Ukraine allies plan meeting of military chiefs next week appeared first on Politico.
