A force as large as the entire French army: President Zelensky mentions a condition for maintaining peace in Ukraine

A day after Donald Trump was sworn in as US president, Volodymyr Zelensky urged European leaders in Davos to “take better care of themselves” and do more to defend Europe. Trump has long suggested that he will end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible, but according to Zelensky, this is not possible without the necessary security guarantees.

One of those guarantees would be the presence of European peacekeepers to help prevent future Russian attacks. According to Zelensky, as many as 200,000 European troops are needed to keep the peace. “That is the minimum, otherwise it will be nothing,” Zelensky said in a panel discussion after his speech at the World Economic Forum.

The Ukrainian president assumes that the Russian army has no more than 1.5 million troops and Ukraine has about half of that. Zelensky ruled out a drastic reduction in the size of the Ukrainian army, although he predicted that Putin would demand that Ukraine reduce the size of its force to a fifth of today’s. “That’s what he wants. But we will not allow that to happen,” Zelensky said.

Indispensable player

Zelensky also indicated in Davos that Kiev was arranging a meeting between him and Donald Trump, who after his inauguration said Vladimir Putin is “destroying” Russia by not concluding a peace deal with Ukraine. But the Ukrainian leader also argued that Europe should become less dependent on the US. According to Zelensky, Europe must learn to stand on its own two feet and become a strong global player capable of guaranteeing peace and security.

“Is there anyone in the United States who worries that Europe will one day abandon them and no longer be their ally? The answer is no,” Zelensky said. “Europe must establish itself as a strong, global factor, as an indispensable player. We must all unite. Europe must learn how to take full care of itself so that the world cannot afford to ignore it.”

NAVO-norm

Zelensky also welcomed Trump’s proposal to increase defense budgets to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The American president previously suggested that the 2 percent standard that applies within NATO is no longer sufficient, even though eight countries (including Belgium) do not even meet that standard. “If 5 percent of GDP is needed to cover defense, then so be it. And it is unnecessary to play with people’s feelings, as if investments in defense come at the expense of health care or pensions. That is not fair,” Zelensky said.

According to Zelensky, the best guarantee of security for Ukraine is NATO membership. Many European NATO countries are in favor of this, but the United States, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia are holding back.