European countries clashed over sending troops to Ukraine at a crisis meeting intended to reach a consensus on how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s peace talks with Russia.
As leaders convened in Paris for the meeting on Monday afternoon, Germany, Poland and Spain expressed a reluctance to dispatch peacekeeping forces to the war-torn country, hours after Britain offered to put “boots on the ground”.
The meeting, which France hoped would also yield plans to help European countries boost defence spending, was hosted by President Emmanuel Macron and attended by six EU countries, the UK and officials from Nato and the EU.
Macron and Trump spoke ahead of the Paris summit.
According to officials briefed on preparations for the meeting, France has proposed discussing a “reassurance force” that would be stationed behind, not on, a future ceasefire line in Ukraine.
But in blunt remarks following the summit, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called a discussion about troop deployments “highly inappropriate” given the war was still being waged.
“The discussion is completely premature, and it is the wrong time to have it,” said Scholz, who faces nationwide elections on Sunday and has long been cautious about the question of sending soldiers to Ukraine.
He said he was “a little irritated” by the discussion, calling it “an incomprehensible debate at the wrong time and about the wrong topic”.
But UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement”.
Asked what a European peacekeeping force might look, Starmer said talks on a ceasefire were still at “a very early stage”.
However, he added: “There must be a US backstop. A US security guarantee is the only effective way to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”
Washington’s European allies are racing to respond to Trump’s shock announcement of peace talks with Russia, which are set to begin in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Some European capitals fear Trump will soon wash his hands of Ukraine and require the continent to ensure the country’s security after any ceasefire, implying a commitment of financial and military resources far beyond current levels.
The Kremlin has hailed the discussions in Riyadh, which will not include Ukraine, as a step to restoring full bilateral relations with the US and ending the war.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv would not recognise the outcome of any negotiations from which it was excluded.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, later said “nobody” would impose decisions on Zelenskyy as the “elected leader of a sovereign nation”.
One British official brushed aside the reluctance of some European countries to offer troops to maintain a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying: “We don’t need everyone to say ‘Yes’, just enough.”
Speaking before the meeting in Paris, José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said: “Nobody is currently considering sending troops to Ukraine. Peace is still very far away and for one reason only: Vladimir Putin.”
He added that any discussion of troop deployments or peacekeepers would “have to consider for what mission, who will comprise it, under what flag, with what mandate”.
Although Poland has significantly increased defence spending since the war began, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw was not prepared to send troops.
“But we will support, also in terms of logistics and political support, countries that will possibly want to provide such guarantees in the future,” added Tusk.
“If we, Europeans, fail to spend big on defence now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we don’t prevent a wider war.”
Monday’s meeting also discussed funding of increased European defence spending and military capabilities, potentially through joint borrowing or what France called other “innovative financing” methods.
Macron has called for the EU to engage in common borrowing to reduce its reliance on US troops and weaponry, although Germany and the Netherlands have opposed such a move.
The dramatic shift in the US stance on Ukraine has forced European leaders’ positions to evolve rapidly.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that she would propose EU capitals allowing a temporary easing of the bloc’s rules on deficits for defence spending specifically, a plan that officials said had widespread support.
Scholz endorsed the idea of an “escape clause” to EU deficit rules, but stopped short of supporting common borrowing.
Starmer has committed to setting out a “pathway” for UK defence spending to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP.
“Europe will have to step up in terms of spending and the commitments we provide,” he said.
Reporting by Leila Abboud and Ben Hall in Paris, Henry Foy in Brussels, Raphael Minder in Warsaw, Barney Jopson in Madrid, Laura Pitel in Berlin, and George Parker in London