Peacekeeper nations, including Australia, to meet on Ukraine

March 10, 2025 journo

London: World leaders who have backed an Anglo-French-led peacekeeping effort in Ukraine will take part in a virtual meeting on Saturday in a week of intense diplomatic activity to find a peace deal with an increasingly aggressive Russia.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host what he has called “a coalition of the willing” — a group of mainly European and Commonwealth countries willing to help secure a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, which follow Ukraine’s bilateral talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia on a deal for mineral rights and a ceasefire.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Credit: Getty Images

Downing Street on Monday said the exact participants had yet to be confirmed, but officials last week said that “about 20” countries, including Australia, were holding talks about how they might support Ukraine if fighting stops. They also could include the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, plus Canada, and possibly Spain, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on the plane to Jeddah, where a high-level delegation of US officials will meet with Ukrainians on Tuesday, that an American ban on sending weapons and intelligence could be lifted tomorrow if crunch talks go well.

Rubio said Washington needed to understand Kyiv’s position and have a general idea of what concessions they might make. Critics are asking how much the Trump administration is pressuring Russia to push President Vladimir Putin to compromise.

“I think the notion of the pause in aid, broadly, is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio said. “They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly. And it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.”

Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky posted on social media site X ahead of talks that Ukraine had been “seeking peace since the very first second of the war”, adding that Russia was the “only reason” the war continued.

“I am grateful to every unit and every brigade defending Ukraine’s positions, ensuring the destruction of the occupiers, and making every effort to provide our country with the strength needed to bring peace closer,” he said.

Ukraine is expected to propose an aerial and naval truce with Russia during talks on Tuesday — something Zelensky has previously described as a chance to test Moscow’s commitment to ending the three-year war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, centre left, meets with Prince Saud bin Mishaal, deputy governor of Saudi Arabia’s Mecca region, centre right, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Credit: AP

Rubio said he saw promise in a Ukrainian proposal for a partial ceasefire in the country’s three-year conflict with Russia.

The Kremlin has lashed out at European efforts to interfere with the peace process, threatening Australia if it commits resources while labelling the UK as again acting as “the main instigator” of global conflict, also blaming it for starting both world wars last century. Downing Street said the suggestion was “completely farcical”.

Military officials from more than 30 different countries, including Australia, will take part in a summit in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the creation of an international peacekeeping force. Not all countries are prepared to offer troops but could provide logistical or “backfilling” for UK or French troops currently deployed in other theatres.

Both Spain and Denmark announced on Monday they were drawing up plans for various levels of involvement.

Government sources told Madrid’s El País newspaper that while the official position on troop deployments was to “wait and see”, the nation’s defence ministry was working on several scenarios, including the deployment of military observers and training staff.

Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been working to repair a rift after US President Donald Trump ratcheted up the pressure on Kyiv to agree a ceasefire since an Oval Office bust up with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, including cutting off military and intelligence support to Ukraine.

France and Britain are also thought to have persuaded a long list of nations to join the military talks, including leaders from Japan and South Korea, who will join remotely.

A Downing Street spokesman said each of the meetings this week would progress planning but no one should “get ahead of proposals being made public”.

Starmer has stressed the need for the US to provide a “backstop” security guarantee, a commitment to intervene if a European-led peacekeeping mission comes under threat.

Officials have warned of a “chicken and egg” situation where European and Commonwealth nations will not promise troops without US guarantees, but Trump will not make commitments unless Europe steps up to defend itself.

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