French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, March 27, that France and Britain were leading efforts to send a "reassurance force" to Ukraine after any peace in the conflict with Russia, even if the idea was not approved by all European allies.
"These reassurance forces are a British-French proposition that is desired by Ukraine," Macron said. "It does not have unanimity, but we do not need unanimity to do this," he added, saying a French-British delegation would head to Ukraine in the coming days to discuss this and the future shape of the Ukrainian army.
Macron was speaking after a summit of European leaders in Paris on Thursday agreed that sanctions against Russia should not be lifted, and instead ramped up, until Moscow halted its war against Ukraine, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
"There was complete clarity that now is not the time for the lifting of sanctions, quite the contrary – what we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table from further pressure," Starmer said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky added that "Everybody understood and understands that today Russia does not want any kind of peace."
In a separate briefing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that lifting sanctions against Russia would be a "grave mistake" and "makes no sense" so long as there is no peace. "It makes no sense to end the sanctions as long as peace has not actually been achieved, and unfortunately we are still a long way from that," Scholz said.
Zelensky said there should be "no lifting of any kind of sanctions until Russia stops this war" and instead "more pressure on it, more packages of sanctions."
Starmer said he was "determined" to see "peace through strength" in Ukraine, telling Zelensky that Ukraine has "our full support for as long as it takes." He accused Russia of "trying to delay" in the search for peace in Ukraine.
As Europe looks to bolster Ukraine after any ceasefire, Starmer said: "We discussed the plans for reassuring the peace – the coalition of the willing – and the military and operational plans whether they are on air, land or sea." "We will work on security guarantees in coming days and weeks," Zelensky added.