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Europe believes it can provide up to 25,000 peacekeepers for Ukraine - Welt

Europe believes it can provide up to 25,000 peacekeepers for Ukraine - Welt Photo: Europe believes it can provide up to 25,000 peacekeepers (Getty Images)
Author: Liliana Oleniak

Europe believes it can provide up to 25,000 soldiers for a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. At the same time, the military expects that about 120,000 soldiers will be needed, Welt reports.

NATO also doubts that Europeans will be able to provide peacekeeping forces for Ukraine on their own.

“The Europeans cannot rely on the fact that possible coalition troops, for example, from Bangladesh, India or Ethiopia, will not run away when the situation becomes serious,” a general from a NATO country told the newspaper.

Welt's military sources indicate that the lower limit of the peacekeeping force should be about 120,000 soldiers. Since the troops are supposed to be rotated, about 40,000 troops will be deployed at a time.

At the same time, EU military officials expect that the Europeans will be able to provide a maximum of 25,000 soldiers.

It also remains unclear what powers the peacekeeping troops will have. Several high-ranking military officials told the agency that such a stabilization mission would be meaningless if soldiers were not given the right to intervene with heavy weapons.

Peacekeepers for Ukraine

Ukraine is negotiating the possible deployment of peacekeeping forces in the future. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this issue is still in the initial stages.

At the same time, Ukraine wants European countries and the United States to join the peacekeeping mission. Washington has ruled out the participation of American troops.

On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy said that the peacekeeping contingent could consist only of Ukrainians and that the main issue was the issue of weapons. The President also said that the number of foreigners could be up to 110,000. According to him, these should be maritime countries, for example, the United Kingdom or the Nordic states.