UK Prime Minister to Visit US to Present Strategy for Deploying European Troops in Ukraine
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will present to US President Donald Trump a plan to deploy up to 30,000 European troops to Ukraine in order to secure US support for this deployment.
According to The Telegraph, citing informed sources, during his visit to Washington, the British prime minister will explain in detail how European forces can enforce a possible ceasefire agreement, if one is brokered by the US president.
According to the interlocutors, Starmer plans to urge Trump to maintain the combat readiness of US fighter jets and missiles in Eastern Europe so that if Russia violates the terms of the ceasefire, it can respond quickly.
The Anglo-French ‘reassurance force’ strategy was presented earlier this week at an emergency meeting in Paris, where key European leaders discussed a response to the talks that Trump has launched with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the newspaper, the plan envisages the deployment of less than 30,000 troops under the command of European countries in cities, ports and critical infrastructure in Ukraine, including nuclear power plants, which are far from the front line.
One source said that instead of a large military contingent, the mission would rely on ‘technical monitoring’, including reconnaissance aircraft, surveillance systems, drones and satellites, to get ‘a complete picture of what is happening’.
As the source explained, the operation will be backed by sufficient firepower to ‘track and shoot down these attacks’ and restore security to Ukraine's airspace to allow commercial flights to resume.
‘The purpose of this support will be to make sure that any forces that are deployed will not be challenged by Russia,’ the Western official said.
On 19 February, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held telephone talks with Emmanuel Macron and Kieron Starmer.
On the same day, Trump's national security adviser Mike Volz said that Macron and Starmer would visit the United States next week.