Washington seeks clarity on the scale of potential EU “peacekeeping” deployment to Ukraine
The United States has asked its NATO allies in Europe to assess their available troops and weaponry and determine the size of the force they could deploy as a “security guarantee” to Kiev, if Washington and Moscow reach an agreement on ending the Ukraine conflict.
US President Donald Trump surprised European allies on Wednesday with a lengthy call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss possible steps toward resolving the crisis. Since then, the US State Department has reportedly circulated a “questionnaire” to gauge EU allies’ willingness to commit to a long-term security arrangement for Ukraine.
“The Americans are approaching European capitals and asking how many soldiers they are ready to deploy,” one diplomat told Reuters on Saturday. The US questionnaire, first reported by the Financial Times, posed six key questions, including one specifically for European Union member states.
“The Americans have provided Europeans with the questionnaire on what would be possible,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb confirmed when asked about the document on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “This will force Europeans to think. Then it’s up to the Europeans to decide whether they actually answer the questionnaire, or whether they answer it together.”
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed in January that Kiev needs “at least” 200,000 European soldiers as peacekeepers to enforce any potential agreement with Russia. However, analysts cited recently by the New York Times consider this figure unattainable, noting that deploying even 40,000 troops would be challenging.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Zelensky issued a new demand to Ukraine’s Western backers after the US said Kiev’s goal of NATO membership was “unrealistic.” He stated that without security guarantees from the US-led alliance, Ukraine would need to expand its army to 1.5 million troops – maintaining which would require a 50% increase in funding.
The Trump administration has repeatedly signaled its intent to minimize US involvement once a potential truce is reached, instead seeking to shift the financial and logistical burden of supporting Kiev onto regional allies.
“To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the Ukraine Defense Contact Group this week. “Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of NATO. As part of this, Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.”
READ MORE: European NATO ‘fears cost’ of Trump’s Ukraine burden shift – FT
High-level delegations from Washington and Moscow will reportedly meet in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss the next steps and potentially lay the groundwork for a meeting between the countries’ leaders. Kiev did not receive an invitation to participate, according to Zelensky. European NATO members have also voiced concerns that they could be sidelined in potential peace negotiations to resolve the nearly three-year-long conflict.
