Key Takeaways
- The UK is likely to abandon plans to send troops to Ukraine due to high risks and inadequate forces.
- The ‘coalition of the willing’ initiative aims to deter Russia by stationing troops in strategic locations.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry views any foreign military presence in Ukraine as a threat to Russia and carries the risk of a direct military clash.
Moscow: The UK is likely to abandon the idea of sending thousands of troops to Ukraine, which was what France wanted, because the risks are too high, the Times newspaper reported citing British sources.
“The risks are too high and the forces inadequate for such a task. This was always the UK’s thought. It was France who wanted a more muscular approach,” a source involved in discussions about a “coalition of the willing” said.
The UK is considering a security commitment to Ukraine, which would focus on rearming and reconstituting Ukraine’s armed forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after hosting the summit of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris on March 27 that a number of countries wanted to send troops to Ukraine as “deterrent forces.”
He said that the UK-French initiative would be neither a replacement for Ukrainian troops nor a peacekeeping force. The goal would be to deter Russia by stationing troops in the strategic locations.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said any foreign military presence in Ukraine will be viewed as a threat to Russia and carries the risk of a direct military clash.
