For the first time, kyiv publicly puts forward the figure of a possible European contingent on its soil. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that at least 200,000 troops should be deployed to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a truce with Russia and avoid a new invasion, according to a video released by his services on Wednesday. This project has been discussed behind the scenes for several months between Ukraine and its Western allies.
“Two hundred thousand is a minimum. It’s a minimum. Otherwise, it’s nothing,” the Ukrainian president declared on Tuesday during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), in an interview shared on the presidency’s website the next day.
French President Emmanuel Macron had put forward the idea of stationing Western troops in Ukraine to oversee a possible ceasefire agreement with Russia, which launched the invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor almost three years ago and today occupies around 20% of its territories in the East and South. For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky indicated in mid-January that he had discussed with his French counterpart a possible “deployment of foreign military contingents” in his country.
Trump could “give all the weapons” requested by kyiv
But he nevertheless estimated last Thursday, from London, that it was “too early to discuss the details”. Such a contingent could only constitute “one segment of the security guarantees” for his country, the leader also specified. For his part, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not commit to sending troops, but assured that “we will discuss it with a certain number of allies, (…) and we will fully play our role”.
For weeks, speculation about possible talks to end the conflict has been increasing, against a backdrop of questions about the position that the new American President Donald Trump, who took office on Monday, will adopt, while the United States is the main provider of military and financial aid to kyiv.
The new tenant of the White House on Tuesday deemed new sanctions against Russia “likely” if Moscow does not negotiate an end to the war against Ukraine. He further indicated that the United States would “look into” continuing military aid to kyiv.
-VideoWar in Ukraine: “probable” sanctions against Russia if the country does not negotiate
For his part, from Davos, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the American president could apply “total sanctions” against Russia, in particular its energy sector and “give Ukraine all the weapons it asks for” to threaten Vladimir Putin . “Except of course nuclear weapons, we are sane people,” quipped the Ukrainian president.
Stopping the war “will be very difficult”
Even before his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump had affirmed that he was preparing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “put an end” to this conflict. “I am therefore not surprised that the United States has contacts with Putin” but Ukraine must be “a priority” for the American president, said Volodymyr Zelensky. “Because we are allies of the United States. We are the victim. Putin is the occupier. And we didn’t start the war, he started it,” he argued.
Ending the war which has left tens of thousands dead on each side and ravaged Ukraine “will be very difficult for President Trump,” the Ukrainian president warned. “We must all understand that Putin does not want to end the war” because he has not achieved “his essential target: the independence of Ukraine,” he said. “Destroying it is his dream.”
Ukraine “will not recognize” the occupied territories as Russian, “even if all the allies unite” to demand it, he insisted, while suggesting that it could nevertheless concede them for a time, in order to stop hostilities. “There will be no pardon, no legal recognition, but we must do everything to end the hot phase of the war,” he said.
