By Galina Korol and AFP | 2025-03-12

KYIV -- Various allies of Ukraine are discussing the possibility of joining a peacekeeping mission to help protect a ceasefire in the event that an agreement is reached to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Britain and France are leading the efforts.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have said they are ready to deploy troops to Ukraine to ensure that a possible ceasefire is preserved, with US support.

They have not been prepared on the precise role of these troops.

'Coalition of the willing'

British officials said they have held talks with about 20 countries interested in being part of a "coalition of the willing" to support Ukraine during a ceasefire.

The meeting on March 5 comprised "largely European and Commonwealth partners," a UK official said, refusing to specify which nations took part.

Some allies have started to indicate willingness to participate.

"If it comes to the point where a ceasefire or peace agreement requires a European presence, Denmark is prepared to participate in principle," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters on March 10.

A day earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country would consider taking part in a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine but stressed it was too early for any deployment.

Following March 8 talks with Starmer, Albanese said: "Both of our nations are very clear about our support for Ukraine, and it of course is too early -- you can't have peacekeeping forces without having peace."

"I certainly have said very clearly, publicly, repeatedly, that we would give consideration to participating in any peacekeeping mission in the Ukraine," Albanese told a news conference.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also has not ruled out sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

"We're not going to get ahead of the discussions on how to keep a peace that isn't yet in place, but Canada will be there and is open to doing what is necessary," he said following a London summit on Ukraine March 2, the Guardian reported.

The summit came three days before the talks on a potential "coalition of the willing."

Türkiye has also raised the issue of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine, Bloomberg reported February 27.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed the matter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during separate meetings in Ankara in early February.

However, Türkiye will not join the peacekeeping mission unless it is involved in the consultations and preparation for its formation, Bloomberg reported.

The Nordic-Baltic Eight -- a regional cooperation format that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden -- is looking "positively" at the idea of ​​deploying a foreign peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said during a news conference February 26.

Role of peacekeepers

Zelenskyy previously stated that Ukraine needs at least 200,000 peacekeepers to prevent a new Russian attack, assuming a Russian army consisting of 1.5 million men.

The joint peacekeeping plan London and Paris have developed envisages sending at least 30,000 European service members to Ukraine, BBC's Russian service reported March 1, citing The Telegraph.

The plan, which the two governments presented at an emergency meeting of European leaders February 17 in Paris, does not call for military personnel to be deployed at the front.

Instead, it proposes to send them to key cities, ports and strategic infrastructure. The main objective is to monitor the situation using satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and drones and to protect against possible air attacks.

Officials involved are considering sending patrol ships to the Black Sea to protect commercial shipping.

Russia has stressed that it would not accept European troops in Ukraine.

Mandate from whom?

A peacekeeping mission could be a security guarantee for Ukraine, but its effectiveness remains undecided, analysts say.

"Russia could start a new war against Ukraine at any moment, even if some agreements are reached, but the presence of foreign troops, including those from NATO countries, could theoretically significantly influence Russia's determination to take such steps," Petro Oleshchuk, a political scientist at United Ukraine think tank, told Kontur.

Maksim Yali, an analyst at Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, doubted the effectiveness of the hypothetical plan.

"If the peacekeepers are deployed only in large cities, this won't have any practical results," he told Kontur. "They [peacekeepers] will not be a tripwire force unless they are located directly on the line of contact."

Another issue is who will provide the mandate for the proposed mission.

"Obviously, it can't be the Blue Helmets or another peacekeeping mission under the auspices of the UN [the United Nations, where various countries can veto it]," Oleshchuk said. "And a big question is, a mandate from whom? From the European Union? From NATO?"

Russian obstructionism

The biggest problem may be getting Russia to agree to a deployment of peacekeepers, say analysts. Precedents for Russian obstructionism exist.

"There is an example from 2016-2017, when a possible OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] contingent was discussed," said Yali. "Ukraine put forward a proposal. Russia blocked and rejected this idea of ​​deploying peacekeepers. And the idea was not implemented."

"And if Russia does agree to such an idea, then [the Russians] will insist that [the peacekeeping contingent] include representatives of so-called neutral CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] states," he said.

Russia dominates the CSTO military bloc.

Ukraine will never agree to the presence of "Russian puppets" on its soil, even if they supposedly have good intentions, said Alexander Kovalenko, an Odesa-based correspondent with InfoResist.

"Ukraine will never want to see, for example, Belarusian troops acting as peacekeepers on its territory. Never," he told Kontur.