**Europe Plans to Send Troops to Ukraine**
A group of European countries is working on a plan to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. This comes as the US has said it won’t send its own troops to Ukraine.
The idea of sending troops to Ukraine has been discussed for some time. The US and other Western countries have talked about deploying peacekeepers if a ceasefire agreement is reached between Ukraine and Russia. However, the US has always said that it wouldn’t be sending its own troops.
**France and Britain Lead the Initiative**
Now, France and Britain are leading an initiative to send European troops to Ukraine. They want to show that they can take charge of security on the continent. Estonia’s Defense Minister Hanno Pevklur told the Associated Press that Europe is in a “very early stage” of developing this plan.
**Difficult to Implement**
Pevklur said that it will be hard to implement this plan if there’s still fighting between Ukraine and Russia. He believes that peacekeepers can only work effectively if both sides reduce their forces to a small number. If there’s still a big conflict, it will be much harder for Europe to send troops.
**US Talks of Delaying NATO Membership**
Earlier reports suggested that the US might delay Ukraine’s membership in NATO by at least 20 years. This would happen if the US gets continued Western arms supplies and European peacekeepers to monitor a ceasefire.
Some leaders have already talked about contributing forces to this mission. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany might consider sending troops, while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed that he had discussed this with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
**Russia Opposes the Plan**
Moscow strongly opposes this idea. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that deploying NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine could lead to an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict.
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