UK says over 30 countries are expected to provide peacekeeping troops in Ukraine

A “significant number” of countries are willing to provide peacekeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday.

More than 30 countries are expected to be involved in the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ to support Ukraine, the spokesperson said.

“The contribution capabilities will vary, but this will be a significant force, with a significant number of countries providing troops,” the spokesperson told reporters.

In remarks published on Monday, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, said that Russia will seek “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral.

“It does not matter under what label NATO contingents were to be deployed on Ukrainian territory: be it the European Union, NATO, or in a national capacity,” Grushko said.

“If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” he said.

“We can talk about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that would monitor the implementation of individual aspects of this agreement, or guarantee mechanisms. In the meantime, it’s just hot air.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to hold a phone talk on Tuesday on ending the war in Ukraine, after positive talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Moscow.

Trump is trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued trading heavy aerial strikes through the weekend and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.