LAST UPDATE | 6 Jan

BRITAIN AND FRANCE have agreed to deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. 

Speaking at a press conference in Paris alongside French president Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “military hubs” will be set up across Ukraine once a peace deal has been reached.

The joint press conference was followed by a statement from Downing Street, which said: “The signing of the declaration paves the way for the legal framework to be established for French and UK forces to operate on Ukrainian soil, securing Ukraine’s skies and seas and building an armed forces fit for the future.

“In today’s discussions we have also gone into greater detail about the mechanics of the deployment of the force on the ground.

“Alongside our plans for a coordination cell, post-ceasefire the UK and France will also establish “military hubs” across Ukraine to enable the deployment and build protected facilities for weapons and military equipment to support Ukraine’s defensive needs.”

Starmer said peace can only be reached if Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “ready to make compromises”, adding that the Russian president was not currently “showing that he’s ready for peace”.

“We will keep the pressure up on Russia, including further measures on oil tankers and shadow fleet operators funding Putin’s war chest,” he added.

Meanwhile, the US is set to provide security guarantees to the peacekeeping force assembled by the so-called Coalition of the Willing, it was revealed after a meeting in Paris today.

According to a summary of the agreement released by the Élysée, the Americans are set to lead a “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism”, which the UK is expected to participate in.

The coalition also agreed ongoing efforts to arm Ukraine’s military and provide it with tactical support, “binding commitments” to support Ukraine if there are armed attacks by Russia in future, and a long-term commitment to “deepen” defence ties with Kyiv. 

A US guarantee, possibly in the form of air defence, has long been considered crucial to halting Russia from further military action in future.

Macron dubbed the agreement the “Paris declaration” and said via a translator that it offered “strong security guarantees”.

US President Donald Trump “strongly stands behind” the security guarantee, his special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the press conference.

He added: “Those security protocols are meant to a) deter any further attacks in Ukraine; and b) if there are any attacks, they’re meant to defend. And they will do both.

“They are as strong as anyone has ever seen.”

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and previously a senior adviser in the White House, said the US president sought “a deal where both sides look to de-escalate”.

He said: “You create a robust deterrence, you know, peace through strength, where it’s unlikely that somebody will ever go and start this again.”

Kushner added: “This is a really important building block towards an eventual peace deal and I think that it’s a big, big milestone that’s reached today between the Europeans, with the Coalition of the Willing.”

The coalition of some 35 countries has been meeting since March last year to hammer out a means of protecting Ukraine from further attempts by Russia to seize its territory once the war is over.

European nations are fearful of repeated land grabs by Moscow, having reflected on the lack of security guarantees in the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements, which failed to prevent Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.