The Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, has met with his Ukrainian and French counterparts in Kyiv to discuss the formation of a multinational reassurance force as part of the UK-led “Coalition of the Willing”.
According to a UK Government press release, the talks focused on the structure, size, and composition of a future force that could deter further Russian aggression. Thirty countries are expected to contribute.
The visit comes ahead of a series of meetings next week in Brussels, where Defence Secretary John Healey will co-host gatherings of the Coalition’s defence ministers and the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG). These will cover both long-term security planning and short-term military support for Ukraine.
“Our coalition of nations, working at pace and willing to stand with Ukraine for the long-term, is a stark contrast to Russia who stand alone with only North Korea for a friend,” said Healey. “As Putin prevaricates over a ceasefire, we will continue to ramp up our military planning.”
Admiral Radakin described the meetings as a step forward in planning efforts: “The UK is ironclad in our support for Ukraine, which is why we’re stepping up for a just and lasting peace.” He added: “I am encouraged by the strength of unity we’ve seen between our European and international allies.”
The Defence Secretary also reiterated that backing Ukraine is “vital to the security of Europe, which is essential to the UK economy.”
The UK has committed £4.5 billion in military support to Ukraine this year. According to the Ministry of Defence, this includes around 400 capabilities, from drones and air defence systems to armoured vehicles and munitions.
This force is an absolute must, had it been already in place the heinous attack that happened yesterday and killed 6 children in Kyiv would have been stopped. Russia cannot be trusted to abide by any truce or ceasefire. This means that de facto the US can’t be trusted either
No it wouldn’t. Russia will continue to simply lob missiles and kill whoever they land on. Anyone inside Ukraine is a lawful combatant.
Then what will the UK do? Fight a nuclear war over some Ukrainian farmland? There is no answer to this, its a suckers bet to fight this conflict.
Putin has been fighting in Ukraine for over three years and his forces are almost depleted. if Europe steps up with an appropriate A2/AD strategy, then the missiles will stop, the bombing will stop
That is sort of true and *if* we went in mob handed and out systems such as Dragon Fire were a bit more advanced and we had a mountain of Land Ceptor systems. Sadly we don’t.
Yes, we can easily deny the airspace to Russia.
The problem is that Putin will be playing games and constantly upping the ante and testing reactions.
Unfortunately, Micron is also bent on playing his usual EU games on defence / fish which shows just how seriously he is taking this. Never any sense of rising above narrow nationalistic interests.
EU is helping in funding and coordinating its members industrial efforts. It’s in each 27 MS national interest to do so.
As for the fish and « nationalistic interests » can you remind us who backstabbed the French and Macron with aukus?
Everybody can earn 220$/h + daily 1K… You can earn from 6000-12000 a month or even more if you work as a part time Work…It’s easy, just follow instructions on this page, read it carefully from start to finish… It’s a flexible job but a good eaning opportunity..go to this site home tab for more detail thank you…….
COPY AND OPEN →→→ 𝐖𝐖𝐖.𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐓𝟏.𝐂𝐎𝐌
Start now making every month extra $6000-$22000 or more by just doing an easy online work from home. Last month i have earned and received $19650 from this work by giving this only 3 hrs a a day.Every person can now get this work and start earning online by.
More Details 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄——-⫸ 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝟕.𝐂𝐨𝐦
Start now making every month extra $6000-$22000 or more by just doing an easy online work from home. Last month i have earned and received $19650 from this work by giving this only 3 hrs a a day.Every person can now get this work and start earning online by..
More Details 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄——–⫸ 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝟰𝟰.𝐂𝐨𝐦
Tullzter, Putin is increasing conscription, so more cannon fodder heading to Ukraine. His artillery continues to wreak enormous damage.
Tullzter, as much as we here are right behind your sentiment and our Government in wishing the Russians out of Ukraine what we see in the maps on the social media of both sides does not stack up with your view. Worse still SACEUR is telling Congress that the Russians are in a better state now than when they started both in terms of their military at the front and their weapons production backing them up.
Sadly given what he says I think we can assume that SACEUR’s comments are pretty much spot on as he is sitting atop probably the finest intelligence gathering system ever seen.
I hate to say it but perhaps you should update your view on how it is going in Ukraine.
Yeah if you think you can win a war with nothing but artillery shells, penal formations and 45 year old contractors Russia’s doing pretty well..
I’ve no doubt that production has increased but are their soldiers better trained and not conscripts they picked up from prison, the street or nursing homes? I refuse to believe that there are much high quality soldiers in the russian army remaining although i might be wrong
Hi Johnski how is it going in MK StPb?
He didn’t say that at all. He said the Russians had plenty of men to conscript and could get their hands on plenty of shells and bullets.
They still can’t hit anything or do anything high tech or dominate the air battle space and they lost the sea battle space some time ago.
So the only thing the Russians have mastered is the meat grinder assault and the Russian mothers are getting very unhappy about that too.
Putrid has started another round of conscription – hardly a sign of strength when he already has more men….shows how poor the training and motivation is….
PS I thought you had been sent to the front lines?
Start now making every month extra $6000-$22000 or more by just doing an easy online work from home. Last month i have earned and received $19650 from this work by giving this only 3 hrs a a day.Every person can now get this work and start earning online by..
More Details 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄——–⫸ 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝟰𝟰.𝐂𝐨𝐦
Ensleigh, how can SACEUR say that?
The Russian Navy in Crimea has been mortally wounded, including its flagship sunk, and most operations now rusticated to Mother Russia – those attacks being undertaken by a navy without any operational ships!
Russia has not managed to eject a fairly small ground force from the Kursk salient after 6 months.
Russia has suffered staggering losses in men, vehicles and other equipment, stored munitions etc.
Despite vastly greater numbers, the Russian Army has made very little territorial gains in the last 12 months.
Tactical handling of Russian units and formations is still very poor.
How do you paint a completely different picture?
Chris, this reassurance force would deploy to Ukraine after hostilities have ceased. Of course Putin could then later re-start the war and of course our deployed forces stand a risk of being attacked, but the Russian army would be focussed on engaging Ukrainian targets.
This situation would be similar to that experienced by all peacekeeping/peace support/reassurance missions that Britain has been involved in.
It would not necessarily lead to nuclear war.
The ICC would disagree with your definition of a combatant. Babies, children, pensioners, and civilians in general are all present in the Ukraine, their home country. That does NOT make them ‘lawful combatants’.
No one cares about the ICC. Note the US, Russia, China, and Israel are not participants. Furthermore civilian deaths are only proscribed if you can prove they are intentional. Most civilian casualties in this war come from debris of missiles shot down. Because unlike in bad science fiction the debris has to go somewhere. Perhaps don’t put military and industrial infrastructure in the the middle of cities? Yet another note once you start using apartment buildings as ammo dumps, defensive and artillery positions every one becomes a target.
I disagree, by putting British forces in Ukraine we are guaranteeing an attack on them by Russian forces at which point we either A have to go into a humiliating climb down where we don’t respond or B we do respond and risk a rapid escalation between two nuclear powers.
The purpose of this “reassurance” force was to call Trump and Putins bluff. That has now been achieved. It’s time to go back and double down on weapons aid to Ukraine so they can set their own peace terms.
In addition we should start getting much more aggressive on sanctions especially now oil prices are falling and OPEC+ is disintegrating, we can even look at a grand bargain with India and China given the US withdrawal and traded sanctions against everyone.
I don’t think we should have anything to do with a reassurance force in Ukraine. Unless it’s an air no fly zone implemented from jets based inside NATO territory eh Romania. Bulgaria and Poland. With the intention being to deny air overflight and missile interception over western Ukraine upto and including Kiev.
This is only viable if additional batches of both Eurofighter Typhoon and F35Bs are ordered as well as substantially improved GBAD and AWACS eg put the Wedgetails order back to 5 and then increase incrementally upto 9.
Unless we do that via SDSR I d suggest we haven’t got the military force thanks to repeated and ongoing defence cuts to do this mission.
If we could use the NATO AWACS force?
Is highly unlikely to be a NATO operation.
Problem is even if those systems were ordered they would still be years away from being available. This illustrates the stupidity of running down our forces to the state they are in now. Sometimes a situation develops way faster than it takes to rebuild lost military power. But its not a surprise to most of us, we aren’t glorified accountants pretending to be national leaders.
Agree. I wasn’t saying get an order in quick and new jets/ GBAD will be ready in time just that SDSR has to demonstrate a significant improvement over the current situation.
I don’t think for one second Russia will be intimidated by the coalition of the willing as none bring enough fireworks together to truly challenge Russia’s next conquest.
Start now making every month extra $6000-$22000 or more by just doing an easy online work from home. Last month i have earned and received $19650 from this work by giving this only 3 hrs a a day.Every person can now get this work and start earning online by..
More Details 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄——–⫸ 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝟰𝟰.𝐂𝐨𝐦
Mr Bell, we have always participated in peacekeeping and peace support operations and have huge experience. I agree that this situation is different with Russia being one of the engaged parties and the airspace not being safe. You cannot order extra fighters of any type and have them delivered in a short space of time.
The bigger issue is the shortage of British soldiers for an enduring operation.
Yes this is about as far as I would go, effectively extending existing NATO air policing to provide a buffer.
Everybody can earn 220$/h + daily 1K… You can earn from 6000-12000 a month or even more if you work as a part time Work…It’s easy, just follow instructions on this page, read it carefully from start to finish… It’s a flexible job but a good eaning opportunity..go to this site home tab for more detail thank you…….
COPY AND OPEN →→→ 𝐖𝐖𝐖.𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐓𝟏.𝐂𝐎𝐌
Really how to I sign up. Fo u russian
go and creat account and start now
The ongoing meeting in Ukraine, represents a pivotal moment in the ongoing conflict, where the urgency for a robust multinational military response cannot be overstated. This initiative should mark a decisive turning point, as countries unite under the UK-led “Coalition of the Willing” to bolster Ukraine’s defence capabilities. The discussions led by top military officials highlight the critical need for comprehensive support that transcends conventional arms supply; the focus must now shift towards enhancing the advanced operational capacity of the Ukrainian military. The expectation for Ukraine to acquire not merely F-16s but a diverse arsenal that includes Eurofighter Typhoons, Rafales, etc, and standoff missiles signifies a strategic commitment to equipping Ukraine with the means to conduct extensive and agile operations, akin to a modern-day Ops Barbarossa. This mission must reject half-measures; rather, it should embody the lessons learned from history, echoing the spirit of sovereignty and self-determination that fuelled Africa’s decolonisation efforts. The concept of “European porcupine steel” evolving into a formidable air force indicates a readiness to redefine the battlefield. As Admiral Radakin aptly notes, the solidarity among European and international allies stands in stark contrast to Russia’s isolation, rendering the mission critical not just for Ukraine but for the long-term security and stability of Europe as a whole. This meeting, therefore, is not just about military logistics; it symbolises a united front that reaffirms the profound importance of resisting tyranny in the name of national sovereignty.