Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said his country had no plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, as he agreed with visiting French president Emmanuel Macron that Europe must be involved strongly in any talks on ending Russia’s invasion.
Several EU states and Ukraine are concerned that US president-elect Donald Trump may try to push through a rapid deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, potentially handing the initiative to Russia after he claimed to be able to resolve the conflict “in one day”.
Earlier this year, Mr Macron refused to rule out a possible future deployment of European troops to Ukraine, and the issue resurfaced before his talks on Thursday with Mr Tusk, whose government, like its predecessor, has been a staunch ally to Kyiv.
“To cut off speculation about the potential presence of this or that country in Ukraine after reaching a ceasefire ... decisions concerning Poland will be made in Warsaw and only in Warsaw,” Mr Tusk said. “At the moment we’re not planning such activities.”
Both leaders said Europe must be ready to play a big role in trying to resolve the conflict when Mr Trump returns to the White House after his inauguration on January 20th, and that Ukraine’s interests and involvement in any negotiations must be paramount.
“Ukraine must be present at every [round of] talks and every variant, every proposal must also be accepted by our friends in Kyiv,” Mr Tusk said.
Mr Macron said: “The Trump administration has said it wants to try to change the course of this conflict, and so we need to work very closely with the Americans and, of course, with Ukraine to find a possible way forward that takes into account the interests of Ukraine and its sovereignty, as well as the interests and security of the Europeans.”
[ Russia rules out compromise on Ukraine as its troops grind forward in the eastOpens in new window ]
Critics of Mr Trump fear he may bow to Russia’s demands and force Ukraine to make a bad deal, under threat of an end to US aid. However, in an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, he said “the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon”.
Mr Trump said he disagreed “very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia”, in reference to the current White House administration giving Ukraine permission to hit targets in Russia with US-supplied Atacms missiles.
[ Sanctions on Russia a constant game of ‘cat and mouse’, says EU envoyOpens in new window ]
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine used those missiles to hit a military airfield in the southern city of Taganrog on Wednesday and pledged that the attack would “not go unanswered, and appropriate measures will be taken”.
After Ukraine’s first use of Atacms missiles on military targets in Russia last month, Moscow’s forces retaliated by hitting eastern Ukraine with what it called an “experimental” intermediate-range ballistic missile.
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