Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
In Washington next week Sir Keir Starmer will present Donald Trump with an Anglo-French plan for a “reassurance force” to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The plan involves 30,000 European troops deployed at Ukrainian cities, ports, nuclear power stations and other strategic locations far from the frontline, which would still have to be patrolled by Ukrainian troops.
Starmer will ask Trump to leave US fighter jets and missiles on standby in Eastern Europe, and to continue to provide intelligence from aircraft, drones and satellites, backed up by enough firepower to command Ukraine’s airspace.
Naval patrol vessels would monitor Russian threats to commercial shipping in the Black Sea.
It’s unclear how – in the event of a ceasefire – Starmer might convince Trump to help prevent a resumption of hostilities and a third Russian invasion of Ukraine, since the US has refused to co-sponsor a draft UN resolution supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, or a G7 statement calling Russia the aggressor on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion.
