Ukraine needs a “serious” contribution from Europe of troops who are ready to fight, and not peacekeepers, after any end of hostilities with Russia, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky told AFP on Wednesday.
Igor Zhovkva, who is deputy head of the presidential administration, took part in talks with US representatives in Jeddah and most recently Riyadh.
He spoke to AFP ahead of a new summit in Paris of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, countries across Europe and beyond that are ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace accord is signed, to guarantee “respect” of a peace deal.
“We don’t need a mere presence to showcase that Europe is present,” Zhovkva said.
“We don’t need peacekeepers, blue helmets, unarmed, or whatever.”
He stressed that Kyiv did not need European troops “to fight with Russia”.
Ukrainian authorities understood that there will be no international troops on the contact line and Kyiv will have to “first and foremost rely” on its own armed forces, he added.
At the same time he indicated that Kyiv expected a robust presence from Europe in Ukraine and soldiers who are ready for various scenarios, including missile or drone attacks.
“If European countries are serious about making their input, they should be really serious,” said the 45-year-old.
He refused to say how many European troops Ukraine needed post-war, or where they could be deployed. He only said that “we don’t need just 5,000 or 10,000”.
“And it’s not the amount which matters…It’s also their readiness to fight, their readiness to defend, their readiness to be equipped, and their readiness to understand that Ukraine is an inevitable part of European security,” he added.
“Every soldier has to be ready to be engaged in the real combat,” said the negotiator, speaking English. “That’s what Ukrainians are doing for more than three years.”
He suggested European forces could help secure Ukraine’s border with Belarus, freeing Ukrainian troops to deploy to more dangerous regions.
“We don’t need international presence somewhere in Lviv,” he said, referring to a city in western Ukraine well away from the front line.
According to a diplomatic source, more than 20 countries, including Britain, Canada, Norway and Turkey, have been invited to take part in Thursday’s talks.
On Wednesday, Macron was set to receive Zelensky at the Elysee Palace for bilateral talks ahead of the summit.
