In “a rather long and detailed” telephone call on Monday, January 13th, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the possible deployment of peacekeepers in the country. The European Union is planning to take on a greater role in Kyiv’s defense after President Trump’s inauguration, Zelensky stated on social media.
As Europe braces for cuts in financial and military aid from the Trump administration, the notion of deploying European peacekeepers in Ukraine is steadily gaining traction.
President Macron first floated the idea back in February 2024 and, while it was met with rejection and ridicule at the time, some of Ukraine’s staunchest allies—such as Poland and the Baltic states—are now seriously considering the proposal.
According to Zelensky’s summary of the phone call:
We discussed the French initiative to deploy military contingents in Ukraine after the phone call. We considered practical steps for its implementation, possible expansion, and involvement of other countries in this process.
Macron pitched the idea of a 40,000-strong European peacekeeping force to Polish PM Donald Tusk last month and also discussed it with Zelensky several times in their recent meetings. In a trilateral summit with Macron and Zelensky in Paris on December 7th, President Trump also said he wanted European, and not American, troops to oversee the implementation of a possible ceasefire in Ukraine.
Trump stated repeatedly that he aims to foster a deal between Ukraine and Russia as early as possible, and President Putin recently said he was ready to sit down without further conditions after his inauguration. While Moscow repeatedly asserted in the past that it would consider any troop deployment a declaration of war by the West, deploying peacekeepers might be tolerated as part of a ceasefire.
Alongside the proposed French role, British troops could take the lead in this currently hypothetical contingent. British PM Keir Starmer is also planning to visit Kyiv in the coming weeks, reportedly to discuss the international peacekeeping force and the UK’s role in it.
According to the Ukrainian media, Zelensky and Macron also discussed the situation in Russia’s Kursk Oblast and Ukraine’s need for more long-range weapons and agreed to another in-person meeting in the “near future” to discuss security guarantees, including the deployment of European troops.
As we noted previously, Zelensky does not consider EU guarantees “sufficient” for a ceasefire and has pushed for NATO protection, meaning either full NATO membership for the Kyiv-controlled territory of Ukraine or extending to it the alliance’s Article 5 on collective defense, without making it a full member.
Both versions could complicate the peace process as Trump remains reluctant to pledge U.S. military protection to Ukraine while Russia considers any NATO expansion a provocation.
