U.K., Sweden say troops could head to post-war Ukraine as Trump fuels a European "collective security" drive
European leaders gathered Monday in Paris for a hastily organized meeting to discuss how to react to recent diplomatic moves by the Trump administration pertaining to Ukraine. The leaders of Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and the EU were among those attending.
The talks were organized after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the U.S. would be shifting its security priorities away from Europe, and President Trump said the U.S. would engage in unilateral talks with Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer said for the first time that the U.K. could deploy troops to Ukraine to help secure an eventual peace. He said he'd stress to other European leaders that, "we have got to show we are truly serious about our own defense and bearing our own burden."
"We are facing a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent," Starmer said in a weekend editorial in Britain's Telegraph newspaper. "This is not only a question about the future of Ukraine — it is existential for Europe as a whole."
He said the U.K. was prepared to "play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine," including more military support and putting British troops on the ground as part of a peacekeeping force if necessary.
"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," Starmer said, adding that "U.S. support will remain critical and a U.S. security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace."
"The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again," Starmer said.
On Monday, a British official confirmed to CBS News that the prime minister would visit Washington at the end of next week, where he will become the first European leader to meet in-person with the president since Mr. Trump moved back into the White House.
Sweden also indicated a willingness Monday to deploy forces to Ukraine to keep an eventual peace, with the country's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard stressing in a radio interview the need to first "negotiate a fair and sustainable peace that respects international law, that respects Ukraine and that ensures above all else that Russia can't just withdraw and regroup and attack Ukraine or another country within a few years."
"When we have such a peace in place, it will need to be maintained, and for that our government is not ruling out anything," Stenergard said, according to the French news agency AFP.
While other European powers declined to make explicit commitments, calling discussions about deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine premature, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk ruled out sending Polish troops to the neighboring nation.
Ahead of the meeting in France, Tusk did stress that European powers should immediately spend more on defense.
"If we, Europeans, fail to spend big on defense now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we don't prevent a wider war," Tusk said on social media.
