The UK is “ready and willing” to deploy British troops on the ground in Ukraine to guarantee peace and security in the region, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said.
In an exclusive article published in The Telegraph, Starmer said that the UK is “ready to play a leading role” when it comes to “security guarantees for Ukraine.”
“This includes further support for Ukraine’s military – where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030,” he said.
He added that these security guarantees could also entail “putting our own troops on the ground” – something, he says, he did not say “lightly”.
“It also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary,” he said.
“I do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.
“But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent and the security of this country. The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again.”
This is the first time since the Ukraine war began in February 2022 that a UK Prime Minister has made such an explicit claim.
However, it is not the first time a European leader has hinted at such a move, with French President Emmanuel Macron last February saying that he would not “rule out” putting European boots on the ground in Ukraine in future, adding: “We will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war”.
Starmer’s statement comes ahead of a meeting with European leaders in Paris this morning to discuss the ongoing conflict in eastern Europe.
The meeting, which was called by Macron, was arranged after it was revealed that European leaders were being left out of Ukraine peace talks between the US and Russia, and that the US was considering scaling back security supports to Europe, leading to fear on the continent that the US was no longer a dependable security ally for the EU.
In the wake of those revelations, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called last week for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe” to ensure sufficient European defence capability to hold Russia at bay.
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