Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speak with media reporters during the Ukraine Recovery Conference at La Nuvola convention center in Rome on Thursday.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Gregorio Borgia/AP
ROME — Countries prepared to provide troops for a post-ceasefire force in Ukraine agreed to set up a headquarters in Paris for a rapid deployment after hostilities conclude in Russia’s war on its neighbor. A U.S. delegation was present for the first time at a meeting of the group Thursday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, was on hand for the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the fourth annual conference on Ukraine’s recovery held in Rome.
Also present were Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who have co-sponsored a new sanctions bill against Russia, calling in part for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to acquire Russian oil.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined the meeting via videoconference from Britain, where Macron is on a state visit.
In a statement, coalition members stated they had agreed on a Paris headquarters for the first year of the force, which is to be known as the Multinational Force Ukraine, and then rotating it to London, with plans for a coordination cell in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
The force, whose 30 or so members weren’t identified, is expected to provide logistical and training experts to assist reconstitute Ukraine’s armed forces, secure Ukraine’s skies and the Black Sea. No specific commitments were announced and Blumenthal and Graham ruled out any plans for U.S. troops on the ground.
Starmer stated the “reassurance force” is essential for delivering security to Europe.
“That is why the coalition of the willing is ensuring we have a future force that can deploy following a ceasefire to deter Russian aggression for years to come,” he stated in a statement.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni stated she was proud that Washington’s participation in the coalition meeting, the sixth since the war launched, happened in Rome and stated it was a “fundamental” sign of Western unity in backing Kyiv.
“I do agree on the fact that we must also increase pressure on Moscow to achieve as soon as possible a ceasefire that will finally create way for diplomacy,” she stated. “But as always we have to remind that it only can happen thanks to deterrence, it only can happen thanks to deterrence, as anyone who is not naive perfectly understands.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, also thanked Kellogg, Graham and Blumenthal for their attconcludeance, as well as recent signs from Trump of support for Ukraine.
He repeated a comment that Blumenthal had created in the closed-door meeting, when he noted the number of countries willing to back Kyiv on the ground. Blumenthal stated the picture of so many leaders “was worth more than 1,000 words.”
“The announced aid packages for Ukraine, and very decisive signals about sanctions — I believe that these words aren’t empty, and the picture, as our American partner stated today, is speaking for itself,” Zelenskyy stated.
Leave a Reply