European countries clashed over sending troops to Ukraine as they began a crisis meeting intended to reach a consensus on how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s peace talks with Russia.
As leaders convened in Paris for the emergency meeting on Monday afternoon, Poland and Spain expressed reluctance to dispatch peacekeeping forces to the war-torn country, hours after Britain offered to put “boots on the ground”.
Monday’s meeting is hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and attended by six EU countries, the UK, and officials from Nato and the EU.
The US’s European allies are racing to respond to Trump’s shock announcement of talks with Russia, which are set to begin in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
France has proposed discussing a “reassurance force” that would be stationed behind, not on, a future ceasefire line in Ukraine, according to two officials briefed on the preparations for the meeting.
But while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “ready and willing . . . [to put] our own troops on the ground if necessary”, other countries are much more reluctant.
“Nobody is currently considering sending troops to Ukraine,” said José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister. “Peace is still very far away and for one reason only: Vladimir Putin.”
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw was not prepared to send troops to Ukraine, but would maintain the humanitarian, logistics and military aid that it has provided to Kyiv for the past three years.
The leaders will also discuss options for increasing European defence spending and military capabilities, potentially through joint financing.
Reporting by Leila Abboud and Ben Hall in Paris, Henry Foy in Brussels, Raphael Minder in Warsaw, Barney Jopson in Madrid, and George Parker in London