Czech president: Deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine impossible without peace deal

Czech President Petr Pavel has stated that the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is not currently being discussed, as there is no peace agreement.

Source: Pavel during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Prague

Quote: "As for the deployment of peacekeeping forces on the territory of Ukraine, we cannot speak about this yet, as no peace agreement has been concluded. It is hard to say anything specific about the mandate as it will be decided by individual states, such as who and how many they will send.

We have now spoken about the guarantees we can achieve. I am convinced that a combination of economic, political and military guarantees will be sufficient. Without security guarantees for Ukraine, no specific discussions are currently taking place about which troops will be deployed in Ukraine and from which countries."

Details: In addition, Pavel commented on Russian leader Vladimir Putin's proposal for a short-term ceasefire. He pointed out that one-day or three-day pauses are meaningless and do not create conditions for the beginning of real peace talks. He added that what matters is not the ceasefire itself but its actual observance.

Meanwhile, Pavel stressed that it was Ukraine that had proposed a 30-day ceasefire without additional conditions. He believes that Putin holds the real levers to end the war.

Background:

• The coalition of the willing, which is laying the groundwork for a future post-war settlement, met in London in early March.
• Since then, several coalition meetings have been held in various formats. In particular, on 15 March, military leaders met on the outskirts of London to discuss plans to deploy international forces to Ukraine.
• According to Bloomberg, France and the UK are negotiating with 37 countries to form the coalition of the willing for Ukraine in the event of a peaceful settlement.
• On 4 April, the chiefs of the French and UK general staff visited Kyiv, where they met with Ukraine's top leadership. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the Ukrainian forces' needs and tasks with a view to providing long-term support.
• At the end of April, The Telegraph reported that in private conversations over the past few weeks, the United States had expressed its willingness to provide security guarantees for a military contingent from the coalition of the willing that could be deployed in Ukraine after a peace agreement with Russia is reached.

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