Zelenskyy: France and Britain ready to deploy one brigade each in Ukraine after the war, other countries have not named figures
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that France and Great Britain are currently ready to deploy their contingents in Ukraine after the completion of the war, each with a strength of one brigade, which he estimates at 5,000 service members.
"Brigades vary. In our understanding, up to 5,000 is one brigade. That is how we see it today. Britain and France, officially, when we signed our declaration with all members of the Coalition of the Willing, we understand that these two countries are already ready to provide a brigade each," Zelenskyy said in an interview with AFP on Friday, the full version of which was published on YouTube.
He also mentioned "signals from some other states that would be ready to strengthen Ukraine with their presence at the contingent level," but when asked about the numbers, he said: "There is no such figure."
On the question of where exactly the foreign contingent would be stationed, the President stated that the Ukrainian side would like to see it closer to the front line. "Of course, no one wants to stand on the first line. Naturally, Ukrainians would want our partners to stand on the first line with us. I think that is logical," Zelenskyy said.
He noted that Poland had not confirmed an intention to send its contingent to Ukraine, "but if it offered its presence and suggested being in Lviv, we don’t need that; that’s not how we work." "If you say that Belarus is the same threat to your countries as Russia is to us, then why aren’t your troops standing here on the first line on the border with Belarus—I mean Ukraine-Belarus? There isn’t such a danger there, but it is important for us that we have partners there whom we can count on. Then we could deploy our own strong contingent, our own strong military, in another direction," the head of state explained, speaking regarding both Poland and the Baltic states.
Regarding the number of troops Ukraine needs in a foreign contingent, Zelenskyy answered that it depends on the technical component. "For example, when we talk about a ‘backstop’ from the United States of America, it doesn’t necessarily mean they must be present with their troops in large numbers. No—there is air defense, there is coordination, there is intelligence, there is readiness to support from the air, etc. That is, these are already strong guarantees in principle. So the question is not even about the number of people. Although it certainly wouldn’t hurt," he said.
The President added that he "doesn’t really believe" the number of the foreign contingent could reach 100,000 and said that 50,000 would be "very good."
"But again, if we compare, for example, if a dozen serious warships were stationed at sea, plus our maritime drones, and the ships were from partners, then sometimes, perhaps not with the number of people, but with the number of aircraft or the number of ships, etc., support can be provided. That is, the question depends on this," Zelenskyy explained.
On the question of whether there is agreement or confirmation from partners regarding their contingent’s readiness to fight rather than just stand, he said "there is no such answer." "Everyone is afraid of such answers, and everyone is afraid of such questions. Well, everyone is worried because when we talk about this, I ask such questions. The question in any security guarantees is: what will the partners do if? If, or when? And for now, in my view, if this isn’t formalized on paper, we are just discussing this topic. And in my view, it’s too early to give an answer today, and the answer must be legal and in documents. This is important for Ukraine, it’s important for partners—what their mandate is, how their military will act in case of danger. And this is very important, in my view, for the Russians. They must clearly know: if it is written on paper that it will be so, then it will be so," Zelenskyy added.
