Paris (EFE).- French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that the 26 countries in the so called “Coalition of the Willing” have committed to either deploy troops to Ukraine or be present on land, at sea, or in the air to provide security guarantees to Kyiv.
At a press conference following a meeting of the 35-country group in Paris, Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that the reassurance force does not intend to engage in war with Russia; rather, its purpose is “to guarantee peace and very clearly send a signal.”
These forces, which will not be on the front line, aim to “prevent any new major aggression” and involve these 26 countries “in Ukraine’s lasting security.”
“Now, we will continue this work. In the coming days, we will finalize the details with the United States regarding the support they will provide, including supervision of the ceasefire and security measures. Then, we will have to formalize political texts and prepare a lasting peace agreement, as well as a multilateral or series of bilateral support agreements,” said the French president.
He also noted that the commitments reached in Paris “go much further” than the solidarity and support agreements signed with Ukraine thus far.
“The advantage of what we are doing here is that it goes much further. It is a military plan detailing the contributions we are willing to make to the Ukrainian army and our reassurance forces. It is already an operational formalization. Now, we will work on the legal and political formalization, which will be coordinated with a lasting peace treaty,” he stressed.
The French president also confirmed that “the US has made it clear that it wants to contribute to the effort to ensure security.”
“I will not reveal the details of the reassurance forces so as not to expose our plans. This is our line of defense and Ukraine’s. We will not reveal our plans to Putin’s Russia. Our Joint Chiefs of Staff have the plans and are ready. It applies to all 26 contributing countries,” he explained at the press conference.
When asked about Italy, Poland, and Germany, he replied that they are among the 26 countries that will participate in the security guarantees.
Their contributions will range from rebuilding the Ukrainian army to deploying ground, naval, and air troops, as well as providing bases.
“Each country contributes in its own way: some by sending troops, and others by making their NATO bases available. I don’t want to go into details, but these three countries will contribute significantly to these security guarantees,” said the French president.
Warning of sanctions on Russia
Macron warned that if Russia continues to refuse to engage in concrete peace negotiations, they will adopt new sanctions together with the US and respond to this refusal to move forward.
“The problem is Moscow and its war of aggression,” the French president declared, since “by demanding the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from territory equivalent to what Russia has lost in approximately 250,000 dead and 1 million soldiers out of combat as a precondition for any peace dialogue, Moscow is formulating an immoral, illegal, and impossible idea.”
He added, “We don’t know the exact death toll of this war, but we know Russia has lost over 1 million soldiers, dead or wounded, in its attempt to conquer less than 1% of Ukrainian territory since November 2022.” EFE
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