Starmer and Macron’s commitment to send troops to Ukraine is not a magic wand – but it is a big step forward
The announcement that the UK and France plan to station troops within Ukraine and build military hubs if a peace deal is signed with Russia is not a magic wand. But it is a key moment.
It may help remove one of the biggest obstacles to hammering out a truce to end four years of slaughter Russia has inflicted on the Ukrainian people.
And so it signals a significant step forward. I find myself in rare agreement with Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that a “milestone” has been reached in Europe.
One of the main sticking points in any deal has always been Ukraine’s need for security guarantees.
Every single Ukrainian commander, presidential adviser, politician, foot soldier and civilian I have spoken to since the launch of the full-scale invasion in 2022 has repeated the same message to me: they fear Russia will renege on a deal.
The consensus for four years has been that history proves it would be suicidal for Ukraine to enter any kind of peace agreement without a solid mechanism in place where, should Moscow break the terms, Kyiv’s powerful allies will have its back militarily.
It is why Ukraine, since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, has desperately sought NATO membership.
The need is for Article 5, NATO’s mutual defence clause, which requires its members to come to one another’s aid in the event of an attack.
Ukraine pursuing NATO membership has only further enraged Russia, and more recently Donald Trump. The US president, who appears to be on his own mission to upset NATO allies with threats to take over Greenland, has explicitly told Kyiv to give up on its NATO bid and go ahead and sign a deal with Moscow anyway.
Ukraine has been promised by Trump and other allies that it will get the security guarantees it wants, but there has yet to be concrete details or commitments made public.
Instead, Ukraine has been asked to make concessions in several leaked drafts of potential deals, including a cap on the size of the Ukrainian army, a commitment in the constitution not to join NATO and the surrender of occupied territory to Russia.
But now there has been progress.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his French counterpart confirmed British and French troops will be deployed inside Ukraine within “military hubs” once a peace deal has been reached.
Number 10 said in a follow up statement that the announcement made in Paris was the legal framework that would allow this to happen.
