British Defense Secretary wants to send troops to Ukraine. “This will mean this war is over”
Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey wrote in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, February 22, that he wants to send British troops to Ukraine, believing that this gesture would signal the end of the war with Russia.
John Healey/PHOTO: Ministry of Defence
“There is no greater burden on any defense secretary or any government than to send the armed forces into operations. I want to be the defense secretary who sends British troops into Ukraine – because that will mean that this war is finally over.
It will mean that we have negotiated peace in Ukraine. And a secure Europe needs a strong and sovereign Ukraine,” wrote Healey, according to The Guardian.
European leaders said in December that Europe is ready to lead a “multinational force” in Ukraine as part of a US proposal for a peace deal, which so far seems difficult to achieve due to Moscow's maximalist stance.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and eight other European states said troops from a “coalition of the willing”, backed by the US, could “assist in rebuilding Ukrainian forces, securing Ukraine's skies and supporting maritime security, including through operations on Ukrainian territory.”
On January 6, the leaders of Ukraine, France and Great Britain signed a declaration in Paris on the deployment of “multinational forces” in Ukraine after the end of the war, without specifying the size of the contingent.
The concrete commitments of the international coalition of 35 countries are to be clarified by the end of January, depending also on the US position on security guarantees for Ukraine.
In an interview with the Russian state news agency Tass, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously said that any European military contingents sent to Ukraine would be considered by Russian forces as legitimate military targets.
“These ambitions (of European officials) have completely blinded them. They do not care about Ukrainians or their own citizens.
This is the only explanation for the fact that there is still talk in Europe about sending military forces to Ukraine, as part of the so-called “coalition of the willing”. I have said many times that in that case our armed forces would consider them legitimate targets.”
