26 countries will provide peacekeepers or assistance: Macron announces future security guarantees for Ukraine
Emmanuel Macron (Photo: CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON / EPA)

President of France Emmanuel Macron voiced a list of security guarantees for Ukraine agreed upon by the partners in the "coalition of the willing". 26 partner countries agreed to deploy military contingents in Ukraine or provide military assistance to Kyiv after the ceasefire or the end of the war, the politician said during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Today, this coalition of the willing has already drawn up a certain scheme of military and political involvement [of partners] in order to guarantee peace and security for Ukraine," Macron said.

According to him, the partners agreed to the following:

→ first, in negotiations there can be no restrictions on the format or capabilities of the Ukrainian army ("this is what we are defending and will defend to the end");

→ partners will contribute not only to the resilience of the Ukrainian army to new attacks, but also to deter Russian troops from any new attempts at aggression ("this is the most important and basic guarantee of security");

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→ secondly, Ukraine will receive a "reassurance force" (military contingent), which 26 partner countries have already agreed to provide;

→ it is about involvement of the military on the ground, in the air or at sea, to "guarantee security for Ukrainians on the day after the ceasefire or after peace."

→ these troops "will not wage any war against Russia"but they are intended to guarantee peace and "send a very clear strategic signal." the contingent will not be deployed on the front line, but "in geographical locations to be determined" and will aim to prevent any repeat aggression and guarantee Ukraine's security;

→ Also, Ukraine and the "coalition" decided to take legal and political steps to implement these guarantees.

UPDATE. Macron later clarified that the 26 countries include both those that will provide troops and those that will provide military aid. He had previously stated that this number included only those who would send troops.

"As for contributions, the three countries [Germany, Italy, and Poland] you mentioned are among the 26 countries that have confirmed their contributions. This applies to support for the Ukrainian army, whether on land, in the air, or at sea. And each of us has our own way of getting involved. Some will be involved on the ground, some will do so at NATO bases. I will not go into details, but all countries, including those you mentioned, are making significant contributions," the French leader explained.

Zelenskyy said that 26 countries had agreed to provide guarantees to Ukraine.

In this regard, the headline and part of the text in this news item have been changed.

There are 35 countries in the "coalition" in total. Macron noted that other countries, apart from the 26 mentioned above, "will determine their position in the future."

What's next?

Macron said that during a call with the US President Donald Trump the partners agreed that "In the coming days, we will summarize American support for these security guarantees".

"The United States has been involved at every stage of this process [of developing security guarantees]. Whether it was civilian involvement or military involvement, they were involved in the work. So, in the days to come, we will define this more clearly, but it is obvious that Canada, Asian partners, and Europeans will be involved in the guarantees," Macron summarized.

Volodymyr ZelenskyyEmmanuel Macronsecurity guaranteesnegotiationscoalition of the willing