The head of the British Army General Staff and Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton said that he must be confident in the safety of British troops if they are sent to Ukraine after the end of hostilities within the framework of security guarantees, Sky News reports.
If such assurances are not given, the deployment of troops will not take place, he said.
Conservative Party MP Jesse Norman asked whether British troops deployed to monitor the peace agreement would be well equipped and prepared. In response, Knighton said that there were no “zero risks“ in an operational environment and the role of the military leadership is to assess them and ensure that “the benefits of deploying troops outweigh any possible risks“.
On January 6 in Paris, after a meeting of the “coalition of the willing“, Ukrainian and French leaders Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a Declaration of Intent to deploy a multinational force in Ukraine after the end of the conflict. According to Starmer, the contingent will be able to ensure the security of the country's air and maritime space and help strengthen its armed forces. According to The Times, Paris and London will be able to send a maximum of 15,000 troops together, significantly fewer than the initial number.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has called Western plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine “fantasies” and stressed that Moscow will not accept the presence of NATO troops there, even under a false flag. President Vladimir Putin has called foreign troops who could arrive in the neighboring country a legitimate target.