“No, we are not planning to deploy troops in Ukraine after a ceasefire,” the Polish Prime Minister said this Thursday, Donald Tuskbefore the French president, Emmanuel Macronafter a bilateral meeting in which both showed their support for the Slavic country. “There will not be peace in Ukraine without having Ukraine,” said the French leader. His visit to Warsaw was known to be quick, but on the ground it was reduced to the category of lightning. After his arrival in the Polish capital, it was reported that Macron would return to Paris earlier than expected to announce the name of his new prime minister.
Regarding the meeting between the French and Polish leaders, information about hypothetical plans to deploy up to 40,000 soldiers in Ukrainian territory once a ceasefire is consolidated. Macron himself had hinted at that possibility last February, when he did not rule out sending ground troops. From Berlin, in a meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Poland and Italy, the new head of European diplomacy, the Estonian Kaja Kallas, also lowered expectations about such a deployment: “The first thing you have to take place in peace. Then we can start talking about peace troops,” he said.
Macron and Tusk’s appearance in Warsaw was brief and without question time. “Poland “It is the key country in aid to Ukraine, it assumes high costs and does so with full conviction,” said Tusk. Poland allocates 4.1% of its GDP to defense, which places it above most of its European partners. Doubles the game of Germany, a country whose chancellor, Olaf Scholzoften remembers that it is the second largest contributor to military aid to Ukraine after the United States.
Europeanist semester in charge of Tusk
The meeting with Macron in Warsaw followed statements by Tusk, earlier in the week, in which he pointed to the start of peace negotiations this winter. Poland will take over at the end of the year rotating presidency of the European Council and will thus take over Hungary. The Hungarian semester has been characterized by constant challenges to Brussels from the ultranationalist Víktor Orbánthe most powerful European ally of Vladimir Putin. Having just started his semester, the Hungarian prime minister went to Moscow to meet with the Russian president. A turn in support for Ukraine is expected from the pro-European Tusk, in line with Warsaw’s commitment to kyiv and with Poland’s recognized historical and present fears towards Russia.
Tusk is carrying out an intense agenda with the Baltic and Nordic countries, also representatives of the maximum commitment to kyiv. In these efforts, Tusk has included the United Kingdom and France, but not Germany. In Berlin this decision has been interpreted as an affront to Scholz, partly attributed to the chancellor’s refusal to deliver long-range missiles to kyiv. Taurus. The German leader is isolated on this issue both with respect to the opposition of the conservative bloc and his Green partners, who would give the green light to German missiles. He has in his favor, however, public opinion in his country, mostly against the sending of the Taurus because it is considered that this would make Germany a preferential target for a hypothetical retaliation by the Kremlin. The radius of action of these missiles is 500 kilometers, so they could reach the Moscow region from Ukrainian territory.
Visit to kyiv
The official purpose of Macron’s visit to Warsaw was to inform Tusk of the recent meeting in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President-elect Donald Trump. Tusk, for his part, has announced an upcoming visit to kyiv. With this, the Polish Prime Minister has expressed his intention to mark the European lines in the new phase that will open with Trump’s return to power. In his election campaign, the president-elect criticized US military aid to kyiv and even said that, once in power, he will end that war within 24 hours. Zelensky, meanwhile, has somewhat softened his rejection of any peace formula that involves sacrificing territory. It is estimated that since the beginning of the Russian invasion some 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 370,000 have been wounded, implying almost unsustainable wear and tear on kyiv.
