BerlinThe French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, addressed this Thursday in a meeting in Warsaw the eventual sending of Western peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a truce between Moscow and Kyiv or the signing of a peace agreement However, Tusk makes it clear that, for now, Warsaw does not plan to send Polish soldiers to the neighboring country.
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“I would like to put an end to speculation about the potential presence of troops from one country or another in Ukraine once there is a ceasefire or peace. Decisions about Poland will be made in Poland and only in Poland,” said Tusk. “For now, [Varsòvia] does not foresee these actions”, the Polish Prime Minister emphasized in a joint appearance with Macron, in which they did not admit questions.
The Polish newspaper Republic had announced on Wednesday that Macron and Tusk would discuss at the meeting the eventual dispatch of a 40,000-strong peacekeeping contingent made up of soldiers from various foreign countries in the event of a truce between Ukrainians and Russians.
In the midst of a political crisis in France, Macron has traveled to Warsaw to participate in a bilateral meeting and a working lunch with Tusk and a meeting with President Andrzej Duda. Poland, one of the European countries that has provided the most support to Ukraine, will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first semester of 2025.
Macron urged during his appearance to “find the path of peace” for Ukraine, but pointed out that there can be no concessions in Moscow without the Ukrainians themselves accepting them and insisted that Europe must be part of the negotiations because their safety will also depend on the result.
“There will be no peace in Ukraine without the Ukrainians and no security in Europe without the Europeans,” said Macron, who has applauded the Polish government’s support for Kyiv since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine in February 2022.
Macron floated the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine last February, but by then he had already received a knock on the door from the rest of the allies. According to the newspaper Republic, on November 27, the French president proposed to the leaders of some European countries, such as Poland, the deployment of five brigades (about 40,000 soldiers) under Polish command to the border between Ukraine and Russia. But Tusk has stressed that, at the moment, there is no intention to go down that road. It has also been rejected, for now, by the new head of diplomacy of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, who has said that the first thing that is needed is for there to be peace in Ukraine and “for Russia to stop bombing”. “Before that, we have nothing more to talk about,” he said from Berlin, where he met with the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.
Alert for Russian interference
In Warsaw, Macron also briefed Tusk on the content of his meeting last Saturday in Paris with the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, coinciding with the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, five years and seven months after the great fire. Trump, who will take office on January 20, asked Paris for an “immediate” ceasefire in Ukraine and the start of negotiations to end Russia’s war of aggression against the country, launched in February 2022.
The heads of state and government of the European Union will again address the issue of the war in Ukraine at the summit to be held on December 19 and 20 in Brussels, among other international conflicts. Another issue that will be on the table will be Russian interference in the elections, after what happened in Moldova and Romania.
“In Poland and France the voters elect the president, not the Kremlin or Putin,” Tusk made clear, warning Moscow that his country “will in no way tolerate attempts to interfere in the presidential elections.” Poland will elect its new president this spring.
