Macron and Starmer are both coming to Washington this week to try to talk Trump into providing an American backstop to a European plan to deploy a 30,000-strong “peacekeeping” force in Ukraine. “The emerging European plan wouldn’t require the U.S. to deploy its own forces in Ukraine, which the Trump administration has all but ruled out, but would seek to draw on U.S. military capabilities that European forces lack, the officials say,” reported the Wall Street Journal overnight. “The U.S., for example, might operate air-defense systems in neighboring countries that covered swaths of Ukraine while contributing other air-defense systems to the Europeans, European officials said. U.S. air power based outside Ukraine could be kept at the ready in case European troops were in danger.
“Starmer is expected to raise the evolving blueprint with Trump on Thursday [Feb. 27], European officials said, but isn’t likely to make a concrete request for American assistance yet. Macron, who will meet on Monday [Feb. 24] with Trump, the anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion, will outline broader allied views on the war and how to reassure Ukraine.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda was at the White House yesterday. “While Poland isn’t planning to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, Duda is a strong backer of Ukraine and is trying to nurture dialogue between Trump and Zelenskyy,” the Journal says.