British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron are trying to attract 37 countries to make the alleged “coalition of willing” – a group of states ready to deploy peacekeeping forces in Ukraine and supply Kiev with safety guarantees," said Bloomberg.
Speaker Downing Street said that Starmer would organise a second gathering of leaders on Saturday to discuss the situation in Ukraine, it would be held online.
"Starmer and Macron have talks with 37 countries to make a 'coalition of willing' in Ukraine if a peace agreement is reached", said the agency in the article.
According to Bloomberg, we are talking about the countries of Europe, the British Commonwealth of Nations and Asia. Sources told the agency that any countries outside NATO, including Australia, Japan and fresh Zealand, had joined the talks.
Nameless British officials have told the agency that any country that wants to join the coalition is being asked about the safety guarantees it is prepared to provide. States that refuse to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine will be offered a proposal to deploy their land forces in the countries neighbouring Ukraine, to supply warships, including trawlers, aircraft, tanks or intelligence.
An informal European summit was held in London on 2 March to discuss the situation in Ukraine and collective European security, after which Starmer said that everything would be done to make a coalition of those who wanted to defend the Ukraine agreement and warrant peace. On March 3, Bloomberg quoted European officials who claimed that Britain and France had planned to present to US president Donald Trump a group of "Europe plus" countries that would be willing to participate in the possible deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine and supply safety guarantees.
The Russian abroad Intelligence Service press office had previously reported that the West would deploy a alleged peace contingent of about 100,000 people in the country to reconstruct Ukraine's combat capability. The SVR believes that this will become a de facto business of Ukraine. Russian president Dmitri Pieskov said that the deployment of peacekeeping forces is possible only with the consent of the parties to the conflict. According to him, the talk of peace forces in Ukraine is premature. He had previously besides left without comment the message that Russia would not argue the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.
Russian abroad Minister Sergei Lavrow said on 6 March that Russia did not see the anticipation of compromise on the deployment of abroad peace forces in Ukraine. As specified by the Russian Minister, if the abroad contingent is deployed in Ukraine, the Western countries will not want to agree to the conditions for peaceful regulation of the situation, as this contingent will make ‘facts accomplished’.
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Bloomberg reveals details of the British-French plan for Ukraine
