BRUSSELS – Britain and France said they planned to speed up military planning for a European “support force” to help stop the fire in Ukraine, but a lack of U.S. backing is making progress difficult.
The French and British defence chiefs jointly hosted a group of counterparts from 30 countries – Europe as well as Japan, Australia and New Zealand – who met at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the next steps in a “coalition of the willing” to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in a possible peace deal.
Last week, a joint Franco-British technical group met with their Ukrainian counterparts to discuss what is needed for the future structure and deployment area of the force.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters after the talks that participants had agreed to “accelerate military planning” over the next two weeks.
This will include “air, sea, land [capabilities] and rebuilding Ukrainian forces for the future,” Healy said.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday's talks had been asked to answer a detailed questionnaire by the end of next week.
The heads of defence of European countries, as well as the defence ministers of France and the UK, will then jointly assess them and determine what resources the countries wishing to participate could practically provide.
However, European military officials say a timetable for military deployment is unlikely to be set until a ceasefire agreement is reached.
Healy also pushed back against some continuing to refer to the initiative as a “peacekeeping force.”
“These are not peacekeeping forces that will separate the warring parties along the line of contact,” he said.
“Member states have to provide a specific number of troops (…), but let's discuss this if there is peace,” the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters.
Before consultations on the national decision-making process begin, many ministers said they needed clarity on the mission and rules of engagement of any future force.
Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said there needed to be a “clear understanding of what such a mission would entail”, including plans for various scenarios such as Russia violating a future ceasefire agreement.
Most European diplomats and military officials have openly stated that they believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in ending the war.
But partly to reassure US President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to end the war as soon as possible, and partly to prepare to replace flagging American commitment, they are signaling that Europe is prepared to play a role in any peace that might emerge from negotiations between the US and Russia.
Trump has so far refused to provide assurances that European efforts will be backed by US security guarantees.
Thursday's talks came ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), which was initially led by the United States but was co-chaired by Britain and Germany after a previous meeting in February.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not even attend Friday's meeting and will send a lower-level representative in his place.
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