Poland’s Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has said that a united European army “will not happen.”
“If you understand by … the unification of national armies, it will not happen,” Sikorski said.
“But I have been an advocate for Europe, for the European Union, to develop its own defense capabilities.”
“And we are actually in the process of forming a reinforced brigade,” he added. “That’s not enough to deter Putin, but it’s enough to perhaps sort out some warlord in Libya.”
Sikorski made the comments in a TV interview on Saturday, in response to suggestions by Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, that a European army was needed to fight Russian aggression if no satisfactory peace deal could be reached and America withdrew her support for Ukraine.
US and Russian officials, including Marco Rubio and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to begin talks aimed at bringing the war to an end.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a dedicated European-led peacekeeping force.
Starmer said securing a lasting peace in Ukraine is essential and that Europe should play a significant role in efforts towards that end.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukraine and Europe would be involved in any “real negotiations” that take place over bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. There was surprise and anger at earlier suggestions that Ukraine and European nations would be excluded from peace negotiations.
The end of the war “when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again,” Starmer wrote in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“I do not say that lightly,” Starmer wrote of his decision to commit troops to Ukraine.
“I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.”
Starmer will join other European leaders including Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Paris today after French President Emmanuel Macron convened talks on the future of Ukraine.