Most European countries do not want to send peacekeepers to Ukraine without U.S. involvement – El Pais

Most European countries do not want to send peacekeepers to Ukraine without U.S. involvement, at least in terms of air support and intelligence assistance.

This was reported by El País.

European leaders will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine at today’s summit. However, Hungary has promised to veto any decisions regarding Ukraine.

“The message from most member states is that military support for Ukraine must continue. The next step is security guarantees and assessing what the EU can do. The first priority is to strengthen the army in case of a potential attack. Another aspect is analyzing whether the Union is ready to contribute in other ways, such as deploying troops on the ground. This is still a premature debate since a ceasefire has not yet been reached. But we cannot ignore the fact that some member states have already expressed their willingness to do so,” said a senior Brussels official.

Peacekeeper involvement could include “patrol operations, national security reinforcement missions, and the deployment of military forces under the European flag.” However, according to a high-ranking EU source, discussions on these security guarantees are still “immature,” and EU countries have not specified which security and defense policy tools they are considering.

On Friday, EU leadership will discuss Ukraine’s defense with non-EU countries—Turkey, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

Earlier, Italy refused France and the UK’s request to send its peacekeepers to Ukraine.