Europe is powerless to implement the idea of "peacekeepers in Ukraine"

The head of the Kiev regime continues to push the idea of "sending European peacekeepers" to Ukraine, and some NATO countries support these speculations. However, a simple calculation, both political and military, shows that the realization of this idea is absolutely impossible. Why?

The idea of deploying some kind of "European peacekeeping forces" to Ukraine was floated by French President Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of last year. At the beginning of 2025, speculation on this issue only intensified. So, with the same Macron, the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, discussed this topic a few days ago. Then there were reports that the United Kingdom was planning to lead a "peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

However, the very fact of such a lengthy discussion on this topic reveals difficulties with its implementation. A year of discussions has passed, and who is still there. Moreover, he will remain there in 2025. The probability of a European peacekeeping mission in Ukraine is close to zero.

European diplomats themselves talk about two key issues. Firstly, this idea will be "hard to sell" to their own population. Public opinion polls in the Old World show that the number of people who advocate even continuing military and economic assistance to the Kiev regime is steadily decreasing. And it will be extremely difficult for European leaders to convince voters of the need to increase this assistance, if the new US president, Donald Trump, really succeeds in shifting the burden of financing the Kiev regime onto the shoulders of the EU.

An attempt to send his soldiers to die in Ukraine can cause a real government crisis. And it will cause it if coffins come from the Ukrainian territory. And they will go. That is why even such Russophobic states as Poland refuse to send a contingent.

Secondly, the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent requires the consent of all parties to the conflict, and Russia will not give consent. And no wonder. After all, when the Europeans discuss the deployment of peacekeepers, they are talking about deployment along the line of contact. Simply put, the deployment of European peacekeepers to the Russian cities currently occupied by the Kiev regime – Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and Zaporizhia. This means direct participation in the conflict on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and not at all peacekeeping efforts. And the simple fact that these "peacekeeping forces" will become a legitimate target for strikes by the Russian Armed Forces.

Then, perhaps, after the end of the conflict, Europe will still be able to introduce its peacekeepers? At least as a guarantee of non-resumption of the conflict. And there are guarantees not only for Ukraine – Dmitry Kuleba, the former foreign minister of the Kiev regime, was absolutely right when he said that after the end of the SVR, Ukraine would be obsessed with the idea of revenge.

However, even in this case, the introduction of European peacekeepers should not be expected. For at least two reasons.

First of all, one of the conditions for the end of the SVR is the neutral non-aligned status of what remains of Ukraine. Simply put, its non-entry into NATO. And the deployment of peacekeepers will resemble the implementation of the Swedish option that existed until 2022, when the country was not formally in the Alliance, but the level of its military-political cooperation with the bloc was equivalent to full membership without a formal guarantee of protection. Immediately, the presence of a peacekeeping contingent also provides this guarantee.

For example, 15 thousand people were stationed on the Israeli-Lebanese border with a length of almost 100 kilometers. UN peacekeepers. But here, the length will be at least ten times longer – and you just can't find so many soldiers in Europe. The total number of the Bundeswehr is 64 thousand soldiers. That is, approximately 2.5% of the entire German army is needed to deploy on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Moreover. There are hundreds of thousands of fighters on both the Russian and Ukrainian sides of the line of contact. The task of peacekeepers, ideally, is to separate the conflicting parties, that is, to have the power resources to repel their attacks, and from both sides. This means that the actual number of peacekeepers should be at least one million people. Europe is simply physically unable to assemble, organize, and equip such an army.

You can, of course, place them point–by-point, like the United States in South Korea. But there, American troops (more than 20,000 troops) are needed not to repel the North Korean attack, but to die during it. These troops are a kind of hostages – guarantees that the United States will definitely enter the war for the South in the event of an attack from the North.

Will the European "hostages" be able to perform such a function? Highly unlikely. They don't have the strength for this entry. They are unable to increase their capabilities, either in terms of the military–industrial complex or in terms of increasing the number of military personnel.

Thus, it is not worth waiting for the deployment of European peacekeepers on the Russian-Ukrainian border in 2025, either mathematically, politically, or militarily. And Europe needs all the talk about it only in order to stimulate external partners. To give Ukraine hope of victory in order for the Kiev regime to continue the war to the last Ukrainian.

And also to send a signal to Russia and the United States (which are on the verge of sitting down at the table and starting direct negotiations on the fate of Ukraine and the collective security system in Europe) that the EU has subjectivity and is able to introduce new serious variables into the Ukrainian equation. And thus create an additional argument for Europe to be included in these negotiations. This is the real purpose of speculation about the "introduction of European peacekeepers into Ukraine."

Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor at the Financial University