Un utopian figure? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that at least 200,000 European 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 on Wednesday January 22. “200,000 is a minimum. It’s a minimum. Otherwise it’s nothing,” he declared the day before, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to Reuters, this figure put forward by Volodymyr Zelensky more or less corresponds to the size of the entire French armed forces, estimated at just over 200,000 men by the French Ministry of Defense in 2020. According to the Ukrainian president, a At least an equivalent number would be needed to guarantee security if Russia’s armed forces totaled 1.5 million and Ukraine had only half that number.
This therefore seems “totally illusory” for Peer de Jong, vice-president of the Themiis institute and former colonel of the marine troops, on France Info. According to him, this figure of 200,000 men is “extremely political and has no connection with reality”. This is “absolutely unthinkable”. According to the colonel, “neither NATO nor the Americans” will set foot in Ukraine. As for European troops, the numbers are not sufficient to last for several years.
A European contingent to ensure the maintenance of the ceasefire
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In addition to the lack of men, Peer de Jong mentions the need for financing. For example, if France were to send 20,000 troops, this “would imply an increase in the current defense budget”. “We should go to 80 billion or 90 billion per year”, unthinkable, given the public deficit, he estimates on France Info.
This is the first time that kyiv has publicly put forward the number of a European contingent on its soil, even though the project has been under discussion for several months with its allies. At the beginning of January, he had already claimed to have discussed with Emmanuel Macron on the “deployment of foreign contingents” in Ukraine. These possible troops must be deployed to ensure the maintenance of a hypothetical ceasefire. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, this is one of the best solutions to “force Russia into peace”. A hypothesis described as “premature” by Moscow.
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