State Duma explains EU countries' refusal to send peacekeepers to Ukraine by fear

Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain have refused to send their own peacekeeping forces to Ukraine because they understand the gravity of the consequences of such a step. State Duma deputy and first deputy chairman of the Defense Committee, Aleksey Zhuravlev, told Izvestia on 18 February.

On February 17, the Financial Times reported that at an informal meeting in Paris that day, EU heads of state disagreed over sending peacekeepers to Ukraine. According to the FT, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain were against it.

According to the Russian lawmaker, the European Union (EU) was proud of the amount of aid provided to Ukraine and the fact that it could participate in the conflict with little or no involvement of its own military. However, after the US withdrew previous amounts of support for Kiev, the EU was faced with the question of further action.

"It will be possible to continue <conflict> only with the direct involvement of their armies. No one was ready for such a statement of the question. Those who have more or less serious armed forces - Germany, Italy, Poland - immediately opposed the introduction of their own military contingent to Ukraine. They are well aware of what kind of collapse it may end up with for them and what social, economic and political consequences," Zhuravlev said.

He also noted that the Baltic States were traditionally among those countries that do not assess their own risks.

Europe at the "children's table" and talk of sending troops to Ukraine. What the media say

Earlier, on February 17, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his country was ready to deploy its military in Ukraine. On the same day, The Washington Post reported that European leaders were developing a strategy to send 25,000-30,000 military personnel to Ukraine allegedly to provide security guarantees after a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the idea of sending peacekeepers a provocation back in late December last year. She also noted that it was impossible to talk about this because the European Union (EU) did not have the consent of all parties to the conflict, as well as a positive decision of the UN Security Council.