The detailed planning of a potential “coalition of the disposal to the peacekeeping mission in Ukraine is expected to start this week among Western military commanders, explains the Canadian general in charge of operations abroad and interior.
The notion of peacekeeping force is encountered internationally with skepticism while Ukraine and Russia indirectly meet to hammer a limited ceasefire.
Lieutenant-general. Steve Boivin suggested that Canada would be extended to contribute, but it is possible that the troops that form the Ukrainian forces are reused for peacekeeping.
He told CBC News that a preliminary rally of senior military commanders of 28 nations which had expressed a desire to contribute to force-to deploy in the event of a ceasefire-was held last week in the United Kingdom.
Boivin participated in the discussions.
Indirect negotiations of ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine began on Monday in Saudi Arabia, an effort mediated by the United States. The two countries agreed in principle to interrupt him for one month on the strikes on energy infrastructure after the American president Donald Trump spoke both with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, but there is an uncertainty about the way it will take effect.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer several weeks ago proposed a peacekeeping force made up of several NATO countries, including Canada.
At the beginning of March, before the Federal Electoral Call on Sunday, the Minister of Defense, Bill Blair, said that Canada was “ready and capable” to contribute troops if there was a cease-fire.
“I will emphasize that we do not know what could be the conditions for such a cease-fire. We therefore work on a certain number of hypotheses and the development of emergency plans,” said Boivin. “The global objective is to offer options to decision -makers.”
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, last weekend, rejected Starmer’s peacekeeping plan as “posture and poses”.
US President Donald Trump said he intended to end the war in Ukraine, but exactly how it could be debated. Andrew Chang breaks down what Russia, Ukraine and the United States all want a resolution, and how contradictory interests make their objectives incompatible. Images provided by Getty Images, Reuters and the Canadian press.
At the same time, several British media reported on Monday that the best British military commanders – cited anonymously – said the Prime Minister had become before him. They said that detailed planning would not be over by April 20-the deadline for the White House for a cease-fire.
It is obvious that it will be difficult for Canada to contribute.
Canada is in the midst of an election and if the new government agrees to deploy peacetakes, it is faced with reality that there are not many Canadian troops to do.
The military has trouble fulfilling the ranks following the COVVI-19 pandemic and a crisis of sexual misconduct that affected a number of senior commanders.
There are up to 400 Canadian troops involved in the formation of Ukrainian and Boivin forces said that one of the options considered for its headquarters is to “revive” some, or all of them for a peacekeeping mission.
“The advice I gave to my team is: let’s start with what we already have on the ground,” said Boivin, referring to the troops deployed abroad.
The training of Ukrainian soldiers – basic recruits, doctors and tank teams, among others – was a subject of brand discussion for the liberal government because it underlined its support for the besieged country. More than 32,000 Ukrainian troops have been formed under the UNIFIE operation and its continuation has often been a major request from the Zelenskyy government.
Boivin said one of the reasons why the training of troops may have to be reused is that the army is fully engaged in its commitment to building and directing a NATO brigade in Latvia.
“We are not going to allocate our contribution to Latvia,” said Boivin. “We are committed to NATO.”
He said that Allied military planners have started to examine the size and composition of the potential peacekeeping force, and how armed it should be.
This is a legitimate concern since allied information estimates show that there are about 700,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine and the surrounding area, and the Ukrainian army has more than a million soldiers under arms.
The size of the necessary force could be massive
In a recent analysis for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, Benjamin Jensen wrote that, given the first first line lines of 2100 kilometers – the size of the peacekeeping force would be potentially massive.
“The security force required to really protect peace in Ukraine could be as important as the whole army of Greece or Spain,” wrote Jensen, a principal researcher to the reflection group, in an online comment on February 25.
“In other words, peacekeeping in Ukraine has the potential to eclipse the previous NATO missions in the Balkans in its size and its complexity.”
It could go – he estimated – from a few thousand soldiers to 100,000, a force which should also be strongly armed and safeguarded.
“To ensure security, this force must not only act as a means of deterrence, but also to have the capacity to fight war to counter potential Fait accompli Attack along the border, “wrote Jensen.
“And this force will require additional air, naval and spatial assets to cover the air and sea corridors that Russia could use to launch a future preventive attack.”
Anthony King, professor of the University of Exeter Strategy Institute, suggested that the underlying hypothesis has always been that any peacekeeping force in Ukraine would need us.
“It seems likely that European nations could, as a coalition, ensure credible strength, and this could generate enough goodwill to the White House so that the president provides additional support,” King said in a statement on talks in Saudi Arabia.
“Support for American infrastructure would be at the very least essential, so that the peacekeeping force could use the impressive air defense systems in the United States. It would be essential to ensure the security of Ukraine in the future.”
