UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Kyiv to discuss the deployment of peacekeepers following the war.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to visit Kyiv soon to discuss the deployment of allied peacekeeping forces to Ukraine with Ukrainian leadership. This could take place after the war concludes or if a ceasefire is achieved.

Source. This was reported by the British newspaper The Telegraph.

It is anticipated that in the coming weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with the British Prime Minister.

Sir Keir Starmer will visit Ukraine for the first time since taking office as Prime Minister.

Zelensky announced the plan for Starmer’s visit following discussions with allies at the Ramstein airbase in Germany on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. The exact date of the trip remains unknown.

In remarks to journalists about plans to send foreign troops to Ukraine as part of peacekeeping forces after the war with Russia, Zelensky stated:

“Britons view this positively, but I will discuss it in detail with the Prime Minister during our meeting. He will be in Ukraine, and we will talk about it,” he said.

Zelensky outlined the meeting plan while communicating with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

The day before, Keir Starmer discussed the situation in Ukraine with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was the first among Western leaders to mention the possibility of sending allied forces to Ukraine at the beginning of last year.

Macron and Starmer discussed “the importance of providing Ukraine with security guarantees” for the future, according to the French meeting protocol.

“The leaders of the two countries confirmed their desire to cooperate closely to support Ukraine as long as necessary,” the report stated.

“They emphasized the importance of continuing to supply the necessary weapons for the defense of Ukrainian territory, as well as ensuring financial support for Ukraine after 2025,” the message noted.

Macron had previously also discussed the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine with Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, during a meeting in December.

John Healey, the UK Defense Minister, is supportive of the idea of sending British troops to Ukraine to assist in training the Armed Forces of Ukraine, The Times reported in December:

“We will look for ways to respond to the needs of Ukrainians. Because it is they who are fighting.”

Earlier this month, Jeremy Hunt, the former Foreign Secretary, stated that British soldiers should be deployed to Ukraine as part of any peace agreement.

“Trump will not send American troops for this purpose. I would suggest that the only way to make this security guarantee for Ukraine reliable is for Britain, France, Germany, and other European countries to send troops to secure the demarcation line,” he said.

Background. It was previously reported that European countries are ready to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, but not under the NATO flag. NATO involvement requires approval from all alliance members and “could provoke Russia,” the participants in the discussion stated.