Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supports the deployment of European peacekeepers, particularly the French ones, to Ukraine - but not at the expense of Ukraine's future NATO membership.
This statement was made during an interview broadcast on the telethon "United News" on 2 January.
According to Zelesnkyy, Ukraine supports French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to put French boots on the ground, but that alone won't suffice.
"But France alone is not enough. We would not want this to involve only one or two countries if this initiative proceeds. It should clearly be a step toward NATO membership. The deployment of European forces does not mean excluding the possibility of NATO membership in the future," he emphasized.
When discussing which countries could join the initiative, Zelenskyy replied that the UK and "several other countries" might support the idea of a peacekeeping contingent. However, they're unprepared to voice their support just yet, fearing a backlash from Russia.
Zelenskyy added that he discussed the matter with US President-elect Donald Trump in Paris alongside Macron.
"I saw that Trump views this idea positively. However, I raised the issue that we have not yet heard which specific countries will participate and whether the United States will be among them," he noted.
According to a fresh poll, most Germans support the idea of deploying troops in principle but lack action.
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