British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will present to Donald Trump a plan to deploy about 30,000 European troops to Ukraine to maintain the ceasefire.
The Telegraph reports this with reference to its own sources.
Starmer plans to arrive in Washington next week and talk in detail about his plan. He will urge Trump to keep US fighter jets and missiles on standby in central Europe to respond with a powerful force if Russia violates the terms of the ceasefire.
Starmer wants to make the case that it is in the US interest to remain engaged in preventing a third Russian invasion after the fighting ends.
Under the plan, fewer than 30,000 troops under European command would be deployed in Ukrainian cities, ports, and other critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants far from the current front lines.
Instead of deploying a much larger contingent to a war-torn country, the mission will rely on “technical monitoring,” including reconnaissance, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, drones and satellites to provide a complete picture of what is happening.
The operation will be backed up by sufficient firepower to track and repel attacks to reopen Ukraine’s airspace and enable commercial flights. Naval patrol vessels will also be deployed to the Black Sea to monitor Russian threats to commercial shipping lanes.
This support could include U.S. fighter jets stationed in Romania and Poland, ready to respond to any future Russian aggression. A much larger multinational ground force could also be based on NATO’s eastern borders, which could be deployed to protect European forces in Ukraine if necessary.
NATO will also have to start discussions on Article 5 on mutual defense, which states that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all. Although this provision is not expected to apply to European troops deployed in Ukraine, some countries will insist that it remain in place if Moscow decides to attack their territory because of the deployment.
