The Europe's 'coalition of the willing' for the Ukraine?

PARIS, France

When European leaders meet for a summit addressing Ukraine on Thursday, it won't be the first time they've recently gathered to discuss European defense and support for Kyiv.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted two groups of top politicians, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a security summit on Sunday following a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his US counterpart Donald Trump.

For London and Paris, brokering a peace agreement is top priority, particularly since Trump's announcement late Monday that the US would stop military aid for Ukraine. 

Macron has already hinted at further details. For example, he told French daily Le Figaro, one step toward a possible truce could be a one-month ceasefire "in the air, at sea and in the area of energy infrastructure."

Paris and London intend to work on the peace plan together with one or two other states, Starmer announced Sunday. The detailed plan would then be presented to the United States.

Starmer is banking on a "coalition of the willing" to secure a possible peace plan militarily. Some states already declared themselves ready to participate.

While it is not yet clear which countries would take part and in what capacity, some initial indications are trickling in.

Some two weeks ago, Starmer indicated that he was prepared to secure a possible peace agreement with British troops.

France has also shown itself open to the peacekeeping deployment of troops to Ukraine.

Both countries insist that such a deployment must be backed by the United States.

In the past, the Netherlands and Sweden have also shown themselves to be open to participating in the deployment of troops.

However, according to the German press agency dpa, Macron has clarified that European soldiers would only be deployed in the event of a stable ceasefire — not during the initial truce.

Following an earlier summit in Paris, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his opposition to the deployment of troops as long as the conflict was ongoing.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also said in Paris that she was open to the idea in principle but a number of details needed to be clarified in advance.

Current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his "irritation" when the discussion arose and emphasized that he thought it was premature to discuss which nations would enforce a ceasefire before Russia and Ukraine even met to negotiate the terms of a truce.

Friedrich Merz, probably Germany's next chancellor, expressed a similar view.

So far, however, neither Scholz nor Merz has ruled out the deployment of the German armed forces in Ukraine.