On 2 March, a summit on the war in Ukraine was held in London, where leaders of key European countries discussed further steps to strengthen Kyiv's defence capabilities, the challenges facing Ukraine and the whole of Europe, the fight against russian aggression and the search for a just and sustainable peace. The summit was attended by 18 heads of state and government and heads of international institutions. The summit, hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is a crucial event on the path to a peace plan, and it has been the subject of much international media coverage in recent weeks.
Foreign Policy notes that European states are calling for the unity of the continent and offering a unified position in support of Ukraine. The plan proposed by European partners contains four "clear principles". These include continued assistance to Ukraine, maintaining economic pressure on russia, ensuring Kyiv's place at the negotiating table, preserving its sovereignty, and further arming Ukraine after the war to deter any future russian attacks.
An important issue discussed by European leaders was sending peacekeepers to Ukraine. The New York Times article emphasises that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to assemble a "coalition of the willing" to ensure the implementation of the peace agreement on Ukraine. "Once a peace agreement is reached, we will strengthen Ukraine's defence capabilities to prevent any future encroachment on Ukraine's borders. We will send a contingent to Ukraine to ensure that the agreement is implemented", he said.
Starmer notes that a number of countries have expressed a desire to join the "coalition of the willing". In addition to the UK and France, the obvious candidates for participation in the coalition are Northern European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands. In particular, Switzerland and Sweden have expressed their desire to send peacekeeping contingents to Ukraine to join the coalition. This was reported by Reuters.
In addition, according to The Washington Post, an important step was the statement by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was ready for a partial truce with russia, which should become the basis for humanitarian initiatives, such as ending attacks on civilian and energy facilities and ensuring the release of prisoners
In an editorial from The Economist, the authors emphasise that Western leaders must seize the moment to make Europe safe. This means taking a clear stance in support of Ukraine, using russian frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine, and increasing European defence spending.
In recent weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has been very active in raising the issue of the European Union's defence capability. In his address this week, he declared his readiness to start a strategic debate on the use of the French nuclear deterrent to protect European allies. After all, according to Mr Macron, russia has been rearming for years and continues to do so, "testing our limits" and posing "a threat to European countries". Mr Macron said he was ready to take on the role of defender of the democratic camp.
The summit in London was a landmark event that underlined the unwavering unity of European leaders in supporting Ukraine in its fight against russian aggression. The discussion of key strategic steps, including continued assistance to Ukraine, maintaining economic pressure on russia and strengthening Kyiv's defence capabilities, was an important signal of international solidarity. I am sincerely grateful to our country's partners for their continued support and commitment to common values that bring us closer to a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine and the entire continent.
As well as raising our own defence spending, we must also find ways to get more resources to Ukraine. Any durable peace there will rely on Ukraine having the means to deter any future Russian aggression.
One unused source of funding is the Russian state assets that are currently frozen. There are about $300bn-worth of these, predominantly in European financial systems.
There are legal challenges to seizing these assets, but they can be overcome, as recent work by international legal experts such as Paul Reichler shows. Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine has so violated the principle of “sovereign equality”—that all states have a duty to respect the territorial integrity and political independence of other states—that it is hard to see how this concept can be invoked to stop these assets from being seized and used to compensate the victim of Vladimir Putin’s illegal aggression.
By equipping Ukraine’s armed forces with high-quality weapons and giving it security guarantees, its allies can ensure that any peace is not just a pause in the Russian assault.
In the face of that reality and Ukraine’s new peril, the London summit has taken on an urgency and importance that nobody could have foreseen. European leaders need to seize the moment.
For a start Europeans must be clear that Ukraine will enjoy their immediate support. This means promising more money and showing that it really will arrive by committing the $300bn or so of Russian state assets that have been seized, most of them under Europe’s jurisdiction. So far it has talked about this, but several countries, including France, have dithered.
Likewise its pledges to increase defence spending. It will take at least a decade to enable Europe to be ready to stand alone. Leaders like Friedrich Merz, the probable next chancellor of Germany, and Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, have sworn that they understand the scale of the task.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a new framework for a partial ceasefire with Russia on Tuesday, posting on X that Kyiv would be willing to release prisoners and agree to a truce that would ban long-range attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure.
The offer came after the Trump administration declared that Zelensky was not ready for peace and froze the U.S. military assistance that Ukraine has been relying on to battle the Russian invasion.
“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal,” Zelensky wrote, while reiterating his appreciation for U.S. support.
Ukraine has agreed to a mineral-rights deal with the U.S. that could be finalized as soon as Friday at a White House meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
People close to the negotiations said the text had now been agreed upon, and the U.S. had dropped its previous demand for the right to $500 billion in potential revenue from the development of Ukraine’s mineral resources.
“It’s a very big deal. It could be a trillion-dollar deal,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting a war that should have never ever happened.”
Sir Keir Starmer has said he is "ready and willing" to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.
The UK prime minister said securing a lasting peace in Ukraine was "essential if we are to deter Putin from further aggression in the future".
Ahead of an emergency summit with European leaders in Paris on Monday, Sir Keir said the UK was prepared to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by "putting our own troops on the ground if necessary".
More countries have signed up to Britain and France’s plan to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, Keir Starmer said.
Speaking to reporters after a summit of European and world leaders in London on Sunday, the United Kingdom's prime minister insisted the “coalition of the willing” plan must have United States backing. Donald Trump's America was a “reliable ally,” he said.
“A number of countries” agreed to commit troops to a peacekeeping force during the summit, Starmer said, but he added that he would leave it to individual nations to announce their participation.
European powers called for continental unity on Monday following U.S. President Donald Trump’s explosive Oval Office meeting last Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Their proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war: a “coalition of the willing.”
Starmer has prioritized four goals to improve burden-sharing in NATO and better support Kyiv in its war effort. These include continuing aid to Ukraine, maintaining economic pressure on Russia, ensuring that Kyiv has a seat at the negotiating table and is not forced to cede its sovereignty, and vowing to continue to arm Ukraine once the war is over in order to deter any future Russian attacks.
Alongside a coalition of the willing, French President Emmanuel Macron has floated a one-month pause in fighting to allow peace talks to begin. “Such a truce on air, sea, and energy infrastructure would allow us to determine whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith when he commits to a truce,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.
Britain and France have promised to muster a “coalition of the willing” to secure a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Now comes the acid test for Europe: How many countries will step up, and does that even matter, given Russia’s rejection of such a coalition as part of any settlement?
Mr. Starmer presented his coalition of the willing as one of multiple steps that included continued military aid for Ukraine to improve its position on the battlefield, a seat at the table for Kyiv in any peace negotiation and further help with its defensive capabilities after a settlement. That is where the coalition would come in.
In addition to Britain and France, northern European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands seem obvious candidates to take part. Both have been strong financial supporters of Ukraine’s war effort and are NATO members who contributed to other security campaigns, like that in Afghanistan. Germany is the second-largest contributor of military and other aid to Ukraine, after the United States.
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