Grant Shapps and Sir Gavin Williamson say commitment from UK would help underpin potential peace deal
Genevieve Holl-Allen Political Reporter
12 January 2025 6:14pm GMT
British troops should be sent to Ukraine as part of a post-war peacekeeping force, former defence secretaries have urged.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is expected to visit the country for the first time since becoming Prime Minister in the coming weeks.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, reportedly told journalists that the pair would discuss the possibility of Britain’s Armed Forces being part of a post-war peacekeeping force.
Ahead of the visit, Grant Shapps and Sir Gavin Williamson, who both served as defence secretary, urged Sir Keir and John Healey, the current holder of the role, to make the commitment.
Mr Shapps, Mr Healey’s predecessor, told The Telegraph: “British troops contributing to a post-war peacekeeping force would undoubtedly be a welcome move, but it barely scratches the surface of what Ukraine truly needs.
“This is a nation fighting not just for its survival but for the values of freedom and sovereignty that underpin global security.
“The UK has been at the forefront of supporting Ukraine against Putin’s barbaric and illegal invasion, and we must now lead in offering a bold and unwavering path to Nato membership.
“Anything less would be a betrayal of Ukraine’s courage and the principles we claim to stand for.”
He added it was “astonishing that it’s taken Starmer over six months to visit Ukraine, particularly when he’s found time to travel the globe many times over”.
Meanwhile, Sir Gavin, who served in the Ministry of Defence for two years from 2017, said: “It’s certainly something that I would support.
“We obviously all want to get to a situation where peace is restored in Ukraine, and it’s making sure that it’s only done in the interests of Ukraine.
“But there will be a need for underpinning that peace and the underpinning of Ukraine’s security, and that will require a real, physical commitment.”
He also cited the Minsk II agreement, signed in 2015 by Russia, Ukraine and representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which aimed to end the war in eastern Ukraine.
Sir Gavin added: “Previously, there had been a treaty commitment, but what we saw is that ended up being worth not a great deal when it came to a hot conflict and it’s going to be absolutely vital for the future that Ukraine security is underpinned by others, whether that is via Nato, or whether that is by countries such as United Kingdom that can be seen as reliable partners.”
It comes after Emmanuel Macron, the French president, met Sir Keir at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, last week to hold talks on the future of Ukraine.
Mr Macron previously discussed deploying a peacekeeping force in the country with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, when they met in December.
Meanwhile, the election of Donald Trump, who is due to be sworn in as US president on Jan 20, has changed the narrative regarding the war in recent months.
The Republican’s return to the White House is expected to hasten talks over how the war can be brought to an end, with the president-elect previously claiming on the campaign trail that he could achieve the feat in a day.
Penny Mordaunt, who served as defence secretary in 2019, said potential British involvement in post-war Ukraine would depend on any wider agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
She told The Telegraph: “The key thing in all of this is what are the security guarantees that are going to be put in place to justify Ukraine compromising, and to take into account all the immense sacrifice that nation has made for not just their own but our collective security as well?
“So for me, the key issue is those security guarantees, and if it’s not membership of Nato, and it’s not membership of the EU in any sort of short time frame, what is the actual deterrent that stops this happening again?”
A Government spokesman said: “The UK is taking a leading role in supporting Ukraine, which is why the Prime Minister committed £3 billion a year of military support for Ukraine for as long as it takes, and this year, the UK will spend more than it ever has on military funding for Ukraine.
“Our focus remains on bolstering Ukraine’s defence, and we continue to push international partners to ramp up their financial support to Ukraine to ensure Putin loses.
“The Prime Minister has also made a clear commitment to speak regularly with President Zelensky, and have met in person six times, including hosting him at No 10 twice.”
This seems pointless at the moment. Ukraine needs combat troops NOW to defeat putler.
Since there is no “peace deal” acceptable to putler that would not be a catastrophe for Ukraine, the idea of a “post war peacekeeping force” is far-fetched.
The cauldron of devilry must be defeated militarily and its economy completely destroyed before real peace talks could even remotely be considered.
This article unsurprisingly has been swamped with kremtroll filth in the comments section. However, here are a few decent ones :
Ron Thompson
Only if Ukraine’s territory is fully freed and Ukraine becomes a full member of NATO first.
We don’t want our troops to be shoved in as a sticking plaster over some unworkable fudge agreement imposed on Kyiv for Putin’s benefit.
Especially if our soldiers are under-resourced, have no clear objectives, restricted freedom of engagement and no clear plan to achieve victory in the case of conflict nor exit strategy. Which is very likely to be the case, if you look at what happened in Afghanistan.
Otherwise, they’ll just be wandering around as moving targets, shoved in by politicians who have no idea what they’re doing.
Trevor Smallwood
Reply to Ron Thompson
Agreed. If troops are used to keep Ukraine within a bad peace which is ultimately to Russia’s advantage then one can only ask why they weren’t used earlier to secure a better peace.
Donna Jones
There’s only three ways that NATO and Ukraine will allow this war to end. Russian troops leave Ukraine. NATO pushes Russian troops out of Ukraine. There’s a negotiated ceasefire that’s enforced by NATO troops. Take your pick which but two of them will involve NATO troops.
John Eley
What is the point of having ‘peacekeeping’ troops in Ukraine? If Putin attacks then there is a war, or the UK and allies decide to back down? It would be more explicit for Putin, if Ukraine was in NATO, but there could be an agreement about not stationing troops in Ukraine, unless Putin breaks the deal. I think Boris is right about Ukraine being in NATO.
Could NATO tolerate further incursions into Ukraine by Putin, after any peace treaty? The Baltic States security would be very questionable in those circumstances. Also, I think Putin should be seen to pay some price in the negotiation, for his aggression.
Doug Knox
Reply to John Eley
Putin breaks treaties. His only real negotiation remains on his battlefields.
Matt Forster
If there will be peace-keeping troops in Ukraine from Poland, Finland, Sweden, France and other NATO allies it would be awfully strange if British troops were absent. The peace and stability in Europe is also a vital British interest.
Christopher Edge
By what enormous stretch of the imagination does anyone believe that Putin will stick to the terms of any “peace” agreement? This is a man who actively encourages his thugs to break the terms of the Geneva Convention; who congratulates and honours them for raping, torturing and killing civilians – male, female and children – as well as PoWs.
He is not going to think twice about ordering them to destroy any “peacekeepers” when he decides to “have another go” at trying to take the rest of Ukraine.
You can’t treat with the Devil.
Neil Murphy
Reply to Christopher Edge
Agreed. Putin is an imperialist and fascist. He has a proven history of breaking treaties. Nothing he signs is worth the paper written on.
Russia needs to be made a complete pariah state, cut off from the world as much as possible.
“British troops should be sent to Ukraine as part of a post-war peacekeeping force, former defence secretaries have urged.”
That’s pretty useless. Ukraine needs reinforcements now. And, if the cockroaches come again, will the British fight? Who else will get involved? I’m afraid, unless something surprising happens in the spines of the West, the list is very short and also their determination to stand their ground.