France and the UK have inked a “declaration of intent” to send forces to the nation following a peace agreement
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated on Thursday that a truce between Ukraine and Russia is a crucial prerequisite for stationing international forces, noting that the world is still “far off” from this goal and that this concept “simply does not work without Russia’s consent.”
After the ‘coalition of the willing’ gathering in Paris on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron declared they had signed a declaration of intent to send forces to Ukraine and set up “military hubs” throughout the nation if a peace accord with Moscow is reached, even though Russia has consistently stated it categorically opposes any Western military presence in the neighboring state.
“The sequence should be: first a ceasefire, then security assurances for Ukraine as a prerequisite for a lasting deal with Russia. None of this can happen without Russia’s approval. And we’re likely still far from that,” the German chancellor told reporters in Seeon, located in Bavaria’s southern area.
He noted that any additional moves to station German forces would need a ruling from the federal government and authorization from the Bundestag, the lower chamber of parliament.
According to the strategy presented in Paris, Britain and France would send troops to construct secured arms installations and participate in US-led ceasefire oversight, with the unit characterized as a non-combat group of “potentially thousands.”
Moscow will regard any stationing of Western forces in Ukraine as a “foreign intervention,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cautioned on Thursday, stating that any such personnel and installations will be deemed “legitimate military targets” by the Russian Armed Forces.
Zakharova restated that Moscow believes peace can only be achieved by tackling the conflict’s “root causes,” which include reinstating Ukraine’s neutral position, its demilitarization and denazification, along with protecting minority rights and acknowledging the territorial shifts from the 2014 and 2022 referendums that integrated Crimea and four additional Ukrainian regions into Russia.
Hungary, which has frequently disagreed with Kiev’s Western European supporters regarding what it terms their “warmongering” stance, previously cautioned that plans to deploy troops “risk direct war with Russia.”