The deployment of European peacekeepers to Ukraine should be a “fundamental” part of any deal to end the war with Russia, a senior adviser in Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office has said in advance of the Ukrainian president’s visit to Ireland.
Mykhailo Podolyak urged Europe to be braver and bolder in confronting Russia, and said US president Donald Trump’s “historical reputation” would suffer if he failed to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to its invasion and Europe’s heaviest fighting since the second World War.
Mr Zelenskiy is due to meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin on Tuesday, as he rallies European support for Ukraine amid a new US-led push for a peace deal with Russia that many of his compatriots fear could heavily favour Moscow.
[ What is on Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s agenda for his first official visit to Ireland?Opens in new window ]
The question of peacekeepers is expected to be on the agenda, and senior Irish officials have said the country could send soldiers to Ukraine if a peace deal took effect and an appropriate mandate was agreed.
READ MORE
“It’s fundamentally important,” Mr Podolyak said on Monday of the need for European peacekeepers to back up any peace agreement in Ukraine.
“It would show that Europe can take decisions and protect itself. It wouldn’t mean acting without the United States, but it would show that Europe can act to defend its own security,” he added.
“Peacekeepers might not be on the front line, but could be in other locations and do training and other things ... Such a mission would also take Ukraine further away from Russia, facilitate the next stage of our integration with Europe, and allow experience to be shared between European armed forces and Ukraine – and our military now has huge experience of the reality of modern warfare.”
Mr Zelenskiy’s first official visit to Ireland, with wife Olena, comes amid intense diplomacy around a new US push to end the war. It was ignited by the leak late last month of a 28-point framework peace plan, which was drawn up by US negotiators but reflected most of Russia’s main demands while trampling over Ukraine’s “red lines”.
The draft proposals have since been amended in hastily convened talks involving US, Ukrainian and European officials, and Kyiv’s messaging on the process is determinedly positive – but it is unclear how much of that is genuine enthusiasm, and how much a desire to avoid offending the volatile Mr Trump.
“Our American partners hear us and are ready to listen to our arguments. They are not demanding something from us in the style of an ultimatum,” Mr Podolyak said of talks over the weekend in Miami between senior US and Ukrainian negotiators.
“They understand very clearly what is being discussed and why we cannot agree to some of Russia’s demands – because they contravene international law, the constitution of Ukraine and the consensus in our society; these are things that we have been fighting for over nearly four years.”
Kyiv has repeatedly rejected Russian demands to abandon parts of eastern Ukraine that are not occupied; sign away permanent control of several regions to the Kremlin; give up its Nato membership hopes and accept limits on the size of its military.
However, Mr Podolyak said Ukraine is determined to be constructive in all discussions with the US – as a partner and mediator in a potential peace process – and will discuss any issue with US officials, even if Kyiv will not allow some of those questions to be on the table if negotiations with Russia do ultimately take place.
Many Ukrainians doubt that Mr Trump – who has often expressed admiration for Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin and backed down on threats to take tougher action against Moscow – will put enough pressure on the Kremlin to make it negotiate in good faith.
But Mr Podolyak says US negotiators realise that Ukrainians will never accept a deal that amounts to capitulation, and that simply abandoning the push for peace would damage the “historical reputation” of its leader: “It’s a question of personal reputation for Trump, and it’s also about the reputation of the United States.”
Mr Zelenskiy will arrive in Dublin from Paris after holding talks with French president Emmanuel Macron, as he urges Europe to impose tougher sanctions on Moscow and use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort and eventual reconstruction – issues he is expected to discuss with the Taoiseach on Tuesday.
“If you are having problems explaining to your taxpayers why their money should be used to help Ukraine defend itself and defend Europe, then you have money right there that belongs to the aggressor – use Russia’s assets to counter Russia’s aggression,” Mr Podolyak says.
He believes that 11 years of conflict and nearly four years of all-out war in his country may hold a lesson for Ireland.
“This is a discussion for Ireland, but Ukraine was also militarily neutral when Russia attacked us in 2014,” Mr Podolyak says.
“If people like Putin decide they need your territory, then they will come for it ... Neutral status guarantees nothing today. Now you need reliable partners and collective agreements, to know who will stand beside you when someone attacks you,” he adds. “I think the status of military neutrality is dead.”
