At a time when Europeans and Americans are thinking about the post-conflict, Russia says it is opposed to a possible deployment of a European contingent in Ukraine in the event of peace with Moscow. “We are certainly not satisfied with the proposals made on behalf of the representatives of the president-elect’s team (American Donald Trump, editor’s note) aimed at postponing Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 20 years, as well as at introduce a peacekeeping contingent made up of ‘British and European forces’ in Ukraine,” Sergei Lavrov told the state agency Tass published Monday, December 30 by the ministry.
For several weeks, speculation has been rife about possible future peace talks, after nearly three years of conflict which has left hundreds of thousands dead and injured. Among the ideas explored by the European chancelleries and Washington, that of the deployment of a European military contingent in Ukraine, along the front line which extends over some 1,000 km. This hypothesis, raised between French leaders Emmanuel Macron and Polish leaders Donald Tusk in Warsaw in mid-December, could involve the armies of NATO member countries, or even possessors of nuclear weapons, such as France and the United Kingdom.
“It is obviously premature to speak […] of peacekeepers”, noted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov on December 16.
The fear of an agreement to the detriment of kyiv
Europeans fear disengagement by the United States in the conflict in Ukraine, or even pressure from Washington for an agreement to the detriment of kyiv, with the return of Donald Trump to the White House on January 20. The American president-elect called for an “immediate ceasefire”, vowing to be able to obtain a peace agreement “in twenty-four hours”, without ever detailing his plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, said he wanted more arms deliveries and security guarantees from his Western allies before any negotiations with Moscow. Vladimir Putin, for his part, still demands the surrender of Ukraine, its renunciation of membership in NATO and that Russia keeps the Ukrainian territories that it has annexed.