"Any possible ceasefire in Ukraine must include a European peacekeeping mission involving British forces to defend the front line."
This is what former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an interview with The Telegraph.
"I don't think we should be sending combat troops to confront the Russians," Johnson said. "But I think as part of the solution, as part of the end state, you would want to have a multinational European peacekeeping force to monitor the border and help the Ukrainians."
Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election, world leaders are bracing for a sharp shift in USA policy toward Ukraine.
On November 7, The Telegraph reported, citing three Trump officials, that he may call on British and European troops to enforce a buffer zone that would be guaranteed by an eventual peace plan.
Johnson, a Trump supporter, said during his interview that he "doesn't see how such a European operation could take place without the British."
"We need to specify what kind of security guarantees we think are appropriate", the former prime minister added.
French publication Le Monde reported that Britain and France had discussed deploying soldiers or private defence contractors to Ukraine after Trump's victory in the US election.
On 26 November, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that London had no plans to deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine.
During the interview, Johnson said the UK had a "moral responsibility" to Ukraine as a signatory to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The agreement obliged Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons and demilitarise - a step that failed to protect it from Russian aggression.
"The only thing that really works is the NATO Article 5 guarantee, which has kept the peace in Europe for 80 years. This is the reason the Baltic states are in NATO. This is the reason why the Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Finns and Swedes are now in NATO," the conservative stressed. | BGNES
