Sending European troops to Ukraine only possible with US backing - Lithuanian defmin

VILNIUS - Sending European troops to Ukraine to enforce a ceasefire would only be possible with US backing, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said on Wednesday.

"We can only talk about a joint decision - US support for European forces, with a clear plan outlining how we would respond, what the mandate would be, and what actions would be taken in the event of a ceasefire violation," Sakaliene told BNS.

"It has to be a joint action. US support should include ensuring that they would respond if Russia violated the ceasefire agreement. As you can see, what that support would look like is still under intense discussion in all formats," she added.

Speaking at the White House earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned his US counterpart Donald Trump that peace cannot mean Ukraine's surrender. The French leader urged the US to support any potential deployment of European peacekeepers to maintain a peace deal.

Macron said that, together with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is also set to visit the White House later this week, he is working on the issue of peacekeepers in Ukraine.

"There are several key things: what the mandate of the troops would be, what exactly they would do and how we would respond. Would we be observing, or would we be involved directly? And what actions would be taken at the first ceasefire violation? Russia has never honored any international agreements or treaties before, and hardly anyone expects it to do so now," Sakaliene said.

"If we're talking about a ceasefire and what can be done to help maintain it, we have to stop using the term 'peacekeepers'. There's no peace, and there's none on the horizon. Russia is advancing, and it doesn't look like it wants peace," she added.

The eight Nordic and Baltic countries (NB8) announced this week that they will help develop a Ukrainian brigade.

"The Nordic and Baltic countries have agreed to prepare, equip and train a brigade-sized unit. Lithuania, for its part, has worked out a detailed assessment of what equipment and gear (...) we could provide and how many instructors we could send," Sakaliene told BNS.

"The full plan is currently being worked out, (...) and the figures are something I’d rather not discuss publicly," she added.

According to the minister, this NB8 initiative is unrelated to discussions in Europe about deploying a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine.

"These are completely separate issues. One is the direct strengthening of Ukraine's military by training and equipping a brigade-sized unit and providing instructors, as well as acquiring weapons," she said.

Asta Skaisgiryte, President Gitanas Nauseda's chief foreign policy advisor, told BNS earlier this week that the NB8 should start developing a Ukrainian brigade should begin this year, but the initiative will take a number of years to implement.

The NB8 group of countries is among Ukraine's strongest supporters in Europe.