Sir Keir Starmer thrashed out plans for a western peacekeeping force of more than 10,000 troops for Ukraine yesterday at a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing”.
Two minehunter ships, which were transferred from the Royal Navy to Ukraine’s fleet last year, are also taking part in training exercises, ready to be deployed to the Black Sea in the event of a ceasefire.
They have been unable to enter during the war because the Bosphorus Strait has been closed.
Senior government sources said the prime minister has won the backing of “considerably more” than the three countries that originally offered to supply ground troops, though the bulk of the force is likely to come from Britain and France.
“Things are quite advanced,” a senior government source said, refusing to provide more specific details of who will contribute what since it could “help Russia”. But the source added: “It will be a significant force with a significant number of countries providing troops and a much larger group contributing in other ways.”
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A military source said the size of the final force would be “comfortably north of 10,000”. About 35 countries have agreed to supply weapons, logistical and intelligence support to the mission, which is described as a “tripwire force”. In the event of a ceasefire between Russian and Ukraine, it would deter Vladimir Putin from launching a fresh invasion.
After a conference call of 29 leaders yesterday, Starmer announced that military leaders from around the world will meet in London this week as plans for the multinational peacekeeping force move to an “operational phase”.
On Thursday, John Healey, the defence secretary, will meet military chiefs at the Permanent Joint Headquarters — the British tri-service headquarters in Northwood, northwest London, where all overseas military operations are planned and controlled.
A senior official described the speed at which the peacekeeping force was being put together as “unprecedented” and said it was evidence that Anglo-French relations are at their closest since the two countries’ joint military intervention in Libya in 2011, which was designed to stop Colonel Gaddafi’s forces wiping out civilians.
At a press conference in Downing Street, Starmer said the “world needs action now” and “new commitments” had been made on peacekeeping and tightening sanctions on Russia during the call, which included the French president Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Rejecting Putin’s “yes, but” approach to a proposed ceasefire with Kyiv, the prime minister said the Russian president would have to negotiate “sooner or later”.
Starmer said: “Sooner or later Putin will have to come to the table. So this is the moment. Let the guns fall silent, let the barbaric attacks on Ukraine once and for all stop, and agree to a ceasefire now.”
He added: “Now is the time to engage in discussion on a mechanism to manage and monitor a full ceasefire, and agree to serious negotiations towards not just a pause, but a lasting peace, backed by strong security arrangements through our coalition of the willing.”
Asked about what action a peacekeeping force could take, he said this would be a subject of discussion between military chiefs on Thursday. He said: “There are different capabilities from different countries, but those are the operational discussions that are going on in relation to what this coalition of the willing will be able to provide.”
Among the other attendees at yesterday’s meeting were Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, who reportedly had been considering not joining the call due to scepticism about Anglo-French peacekeeping proposals.
As well as European nations, the leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand joined the call, as did the Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte. The meeting followed an intense week of diplomacy in which American officials put a US-Ukraine proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to Russia.
But the Kremlin has so far resisted the proposal, saying it would only agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine also agreed to abandon its aim of joining Nato and gave up some of its territory to Russia.
Speaking from the cabinet room in No 10 yesterday, Starmer told world leaders they could not “sit back and wait” for a ceasefire in Ukraine, adding: “We have to keep pushing ahead, pushing forward and preparing for peace, and a peace that will be secure and that will last.”
Earlier in the day, Putin’s first prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, who now opposes the Russian president, said his former boss would not accept Nato or European troops being deployed to Ukraine, but might agree to soldiers from “friendly countries” such as India and Brazil.
Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine launched drone attacks overnight, each reporting more than 100 enemy drones entering their respective airspaces. No casualties have been reported and both countries’ defence ministries claim to have shot down around 130 enemy drones.
