Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Tuesday, said no fewer than 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack after any ceasefire deal.
Zelenskiy stated this at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a day after Trump returned to power following months of promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly,
The Ukrainian leader, who is seeking a meeting with Trump, urged European leaders to do more to defend the continent.
According to him, the prospect of a rapid settlement has focused minds in Kyiv, adding that Europe is on the urgent need for security guarantees to prevent any future Russian attack, with the idea of peacekeeping force circulating.
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“From all the Europeans? 200,000, it’s a minimum. It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” Zelenskiy said.
He added that the number is around the size of the entire French armed forces, estimated at just over 200,000 by France’s defence ministry in 2020.
Zelenskiy said at least that number would be needed as a security guarantee if Russia’s armed forces totalled 1.5 million personnel and Ukraine had only half that number.
According to him, such a force would only be part of the security guarantees that Ukraine needed, reiterating that Kyiv was working to set up a meeting between himself and Trump.
“The teams have been working on a meeting, they are currently in the process,” Zelenskiy said about those efforts.
It was gathered that Trump, who returned to office on Monday, has said he would stop the war in Ukraine swiftly, without saying how.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not agree to Russian demands that it drastically reduce the size of its military, predicting that Russian President Vladimir Putin would demand Ukraine cut its armed forces to a fifth of their size.
