““I didn’t say, by the way, that we need 200,000. A journalist asked me: 200,000. I said, it could be more, it could be less.””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“I didn’t say, by the way, that we need 200,000. A journalist asked me: 200,000. I said, it could be more, it could be less,” Zelensky said in an interview with Bloomberg.
According to him, an army of one million is needed to stop Putin, but if the US and Europe insist on the need to reduce the army, then other troops will be needed.
“If we reduce it by 200,000, 300,000, 500,000. This would mean that other troops would be needed instead. In the amount by which we reduced it,” said Zelensky.
He emphasized that the peacekeeping contingent can help, however, “if there is a will of other countries”, but it cannot be considered “as a purely European initiative, without the USA”.
The day before, the president said that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack on Ukraine after any possible ceasefire agreement. The Ukrainian leader said this while speaking at a meeting with representatives of the International Media Council as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“200 thousand is the minimum. This is the minimum, otherwise it is nothing,” Zelenskyi said.
According to the president, at least this number will be needed as a guarantee of security in the conditions, if the Russian armed forces will be 1.5 million people, and Ukraine will have only half of this number.
Read also: European troops in Ukraine. Does the idea of sending a peacekeeping contingent have a chance of success?
Earlier, the British press reported that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron began discussing the possibility of sending British and French soldiers to Ukraine as peacekeepers in the event that an agreement to end the Russian-Ukrainian war is reached.
Emmanuel Macron first spoke that European countries could send troops to Ukraine at the end of February 2024, but then this idea did not find support among the partner countries.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in Brussels last month without elaborating that he sees “positive developments” in the discussions regarding the possibility of deploying peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. And on January 13, he said that he spoke with his French colleague Emmanuel Macron and discussed the idea of placing “partner contingents” in Ukraine.
On January 16, Zelenskyi said that the placement of a foreign military contingent in Ukraine is being discussed with those countries that want or are able to do so, however, it is still too early to talk about details, in particular, regarding the number.