Europe-Ukraine Conference Agrees More Cash for Kyiv, But Only Disagreements on Peacekeeper Deployment

The United Kingdom snapped back at the European Union after a top figure said ‘coalition of the willing’ talks had failed to produce clarity on plans for post-ceasefire Ukraine.

A public rift between the United Kingdom and the European Union opened on Ukraine this week, with Europe’s foreign affairs chief expressing her view the British-led talks had failed to produce a unified vision on what is needed. The British Defence Secretary’s somewhat snide retort on Friday was that the European Union itself, as opposed to individual European states, wasn’t involved in coalition planning anyway.

Speaking on Thursday Kaja Kallas, the former Prime Minister of Estonia and now the EU’s foreign affairs chief was asked by a journalist whether the meeting had left her any clearer on the plans to secure a post-war settlement in Ukraine. She replied: “No. I mean the different member states have different opinions and the discussions are still ongoing.” 

British Defence Minister John Healey responded: “The EU has played an important series of roles in supporting Ukraine and putting pressure on Russia since its brutal, illegal invasion was launched in February 22… Our planning is indeed, for the ‘coalition of the willing’, real, substantial, well advanced; the European Union is not part of that planning.”

While such sniping in public may not be what the convenors of the Ukraine Contact Group, which the United Kingdom took over from the United States recently, hope for from their meetings it seems to be congruent with what is known to go on behind closed doors. Ukraine’s Western backers are by no means agreed on whether there should be a troop deployment to Ukraine to enforce a future peace treaty, and even among those who foresee such a role there is no joint vision on what this would mean in practice. 

So in that regard this week’s meetings are typical for Ukraine support conferences. The Ukrainian delegation, led by that nation’s defence minister Rustem Umerov, will be able to celebrate fresh funding promised by attendees pledged at $24 billion. The United Kingdom called it a “record boost in military funding for Ukraine, and we are also surging that support to the frontline fight.”