UK and France agree to send troops to Ukraine in event of peace deal with Russia

By Christian Edwards, Joseph Ataman, Melissa Bell, CNN

(CNN) — The United Kingdom and France have agreed to deploy forces in Ukraine if it strikes a peace deal with Russia, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, in a renewed push by Western leaders to guarantee Kyiv’s post-war security and deter Moscow from further aggression.

After officials from 35 countries gathered in Paris for a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a “declaration of intent” to put British and French boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal – a move Russia has long staunchly opposed.

“Following a ceasefire, the UK and France will establish military hubs across Ukraine and build protected facilities for weapons and military equipment to support Ukraine’s defensive needs,” Starmer said at a joint news conference alongside European leaders, as well as US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Tuesday’s meeting – the largest since the coalition was founded last spring – had risked being overshadowed by the US’ toppling of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, as well as by Trump’s coveting of Greenland, the vast autonomous Arctic territory ruled by Denmark. Just days after the Venezuela raid, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller underlined the administration’s claims on the island, telling CNN that Greenland should “obviously” be a part of the US and that “nobody is going to fight the United States” over its future.

Before the meeting, analysts had questioned whether the US could be trusted to guarantee Ukraine’s security while it is threatening to occupy the territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO member.

But, despite Washington’s sharp pivot toward the Western hemisphere, Witkoff stressed that the Trump administration remains determined “to do everything possible” to bring peace to Ukraine, and said “a lot of progress” had been made in Paris.

“We think we’re largely finished with security protocols, which are important, so that the people of Ukraine know that when this ends, it ends forever,” the envoy said, referring to Russia’s nearly four-year war.

In an interview with CNN on the sidelines of the meeting, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Tuesday’s meeting had been “very successful.”

“I’m absolutely convinced that, if this gets into place, that Putin will never, ever try again to attack Ukraine,” Rutte said.

There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, but the Kremlin has repeatedly stressed that it will not agree to foreign troops operating in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force. President Vladimir Putin said in September that any Western troops in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets.”

If a peace deal is struck, security guarantees will include a “continuous, reliable ceasefire monitoring system” led by the US and supported by other nations, the members of the Coalition of the Willing said in a joint statement.

The members also agreed to provide Ukraine with “critical long-term military assistance and armaments” to Ukraine, as well as deploying a multinational force to guarantee Ukraine’s security “in the air, at sea and on land.”

Although Britain and France had previously stated their willingness to deploy troops to Ukraine following a ceasefire, Starmer said that this agreement sets out the legal framework for allowing their forces to operate there.

“These security guarantees are the key to ensuring that a peace agreement can never mean a Ukrainian surrender or a new threat to Ukraine,” Macron said. He noted Russia’s history of breaking peace agreements with its neighbors, and said Ukraine’s allies wanted to prevent such violations happening again.

The members also agreed to supply Ukraine with “all the necessary resources” to supply an armed force of 800,000 troops, Macron said. An earlier draft of a peace plan, which emerged in November and was criticized as being heavily favorable to Moscow, sought to cap Ukraine’s armed forces at 600,000 personnel. Ukraine rejected that 28-point plan and has since worked on a revised draft during several meetings with US officials.

Although Tuesday’s agreement represents the clearest picture yet of how Ukraine’s allies intend to guarantee its security in the event of a peace deal, that deal itself remains elusive.

“We can only get to a peace deal if Putin is ready to make compromises,” said Starmer. “For all Russia’s words, Putin is not showing that he’s ready for peace.”

Despite intense diplomacy between the US and Ukraine in December, hopes for a swift peace deal were derailed after Putin told Trump that Ukraine had launched a massive drone attack on one of his residences. Trump said he was “very angry” after hearing the claim, which the CIA later assessed not to be true.

Starmer said that Putin had “tried to distract from peace efforts with unfounded claims of attacks on his residence … This only hardens our resolve.”

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