President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France and the United Kingdom would lead efforts to send a "reassurance force" to Ukraine after any future peace deal with Russia, even if the idea was not approved by all their European allies, reports RFI.
"These reassurance forces are a British-French proposition that is desired by Ukraine," Macron said after a summit in Paris on Thursday of more than two dozen allies of Ukraine – the so-called Coalition of the Willing.
"It does not have unanimity today but we do not need unanimity to do this," he added, saying a Franco-British delegation would head to Ukraine in the coming days to discuss this, and the future shape of the Ukrainian army.
"There will be a reassurance force with several European countries who will deploy [to Ukraine]," he said.
Macron emphasised that members of such a force were not destined to be peacekeepers, or to be deployed on the front line or as any kind of substitute for the Ukrainian army.