European States Discussing Major Ground Force Intervention in Ukraine: Kiev Wants 200,000 Foreign Troops
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Ground
A number of countries in the European Union have been discussing contingencies for the deployment of ground forces to Ukraine, accordingly to a recent report by the Associated Press. The paper reported that Britain and France have remained “at the forefront of the effort,” with U.S. President Donald Trump’s election victory on November 5 reported to have galvanised European talks on an intervention. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, NATO and the EU then held a meeting in Brussels in December, where Western ground force deployments in Ukraine were reportedly discussed. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur subsequently noted on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that “we are in a very early stage” of such talks. French President Emmanuel Macron stated repeatedly in 2024 that ground force deployments were not ruled out as part of a policy to “do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war,” while Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in January insisted that European states would need to dispatch 200,000 personnel to his country. “It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” he asserted.
Calls for a large scale ground force intervention to be considered have been widely raised by European leaders such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, and the Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, among others. In early February a report from The Timesobserved that despite having espoused some of the most hostile rhetoric towards Russia, the Baltic States and Poland have begun to show apprehensions towards such escalation due to the risk that the fallout could leave them exposed. Hungary has stood out on the continent for its stark opposition to such intervention, with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto asserting on February 15 that in the face of a possible peace agreement brokered by the United States and Russia: “The European pro-war, liberal elite will try to do everything in its power to ensure that the peace agreement that ends the war in Ukraine is not reached.”
There have been significant concerns that the limited ground force capabilities of European states would make an intervention unviable without American support, with one European diplomatic source having informed The Times that U.S. participation would be necessary because “they have capabilities that all of Europe lacks,” including the “ability to retaliate at scale if needed.” Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor at the White House H. R. McMaster on February 7 observed that European armies lacked the necessary capacity to sustain large scale ground operations, noting when taking the United Kingdom as an example: “Look at the British Army right now. I mean, it makes me want to cry, almost.” The new Donald Trump administration is considered highly unlikely to support its more hawkish allies across the Atlantic in initiating an escalation, with Vice President J.D. Vance’s sharp criticisms of the policies of the European Union and individual European states at the Munich Security Conference having sent shockwaves throughout the continent’s leadership, and overshadowed talks on Ukraine.
In November 2024 the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service disclosed information on plans by NATO members to initiate a major ground force deployment to temporarily suspend ongoing hostilities, with the goal of stemming Ukrainian losses and building up local forces to later resume hostilities on more favourable terms. As chances for a Ukrainian recovery on the frontlines diminished, it observed, European NATO members increasingly favoured ending hostilities before Russian forces claimed more territory, with the goal remaining “prepare it for an attempt at revenge.” New training centres had at the time already begun to be set up by NATO members to process at least one million new Ukrainian conscripts, while Ukraine’s strategic partners in the West had pressed Kiev to reduce the conscription age from 25 to 18. “To solve these tasks, the West will need to essentially occupy Ukraine. Naturally, this will be done under the guise of deploying a ‘peacekeeping contingent’ in the country… According to the plan, a total of 100,000 so-called peacekeepers will be deployed in Ukraine,” the agency added, with with Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom expected to play leading roles.
Western advisors, logisticians, combatants, and other personnel have since early 2022 played a very central role on the ground in the Ukrainian theatre, ranging from British Royal Marine deployments for frontline combat operations from April that year, to the Forward Observations Group American military organisation which confirmed the deployment of its personnel to support a Ukrainian offensive into the Russian Kursk region in August. Reports of English, Polish, and French speaking personnel in combat have emerged repeatedly on frontiers from Bakhmut to Kursk.
This is a gross mischaracterization, as expected from Military Watch Fake News.
ReplyDeleteIn the Munich Security conference, Europe was told it had to prepare to defend itself from Russian threat, because the Donald Fuck USA is likely to stand aside or even side with Russia.
There is no Ground Force intervention in the hot War on the tsr.
So what r pommieland's fart to send fighting troops to Ukraine?
DeleteStarmer's play of words likening yrs?