France and Great Britain have drawn up a plan to ensure the security of Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, which includes the deployment of at least 30,000 troops as a peacekeeping force. According to reports in the Daily Mail, British Labour leader Keir Starmer may present the proposal during a visit to Washington next week.

The plan entrusts Britain and France with the responsibility of protecting Ukraine directly on the ground, provided that the US and other NATO countries provide air cover. Ukrainian forces, on the other hand, would be tasked with patrolling a demilitarised zone along the entire front line, while an Anglo-French ‘reassurance force’ would garrison key infrastructure sites.

The presence of Western troops should deter Russia from new attacks: US fighter planes and missile batteries would remain on alert at bases in Eastern Europe, while NATO air and naval assets would continue to carry out reconnaissance missions over Ukraine and the Black Sea.

Why the Europe that matters is still the heirs of Churchill and De Gaulle

Despite Brexit and in spite of German industrial strength, the geopolitical weight of a Europe capable of defending and defending itself still lies with the heirs of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. France and the United Kingdom, endowed with highly professional armed forces and long-standing military experience, remain the cornerstones of a potential for intervention that can guarantee European security far beyond the borders of the EU.

The crazy variable remains Trump

However, two crucial variables remain: Vladimir Putin’s willingness to negotiate an agreement involving the presence of European troops in Ukraine, which has so far been categorically exclusive, and above all Trump’s ability to keep the point on the unavoidability of European involvement.

From this perspective, Starmer’s move to present the plan to Trump amounts to an implicit challenge: to demonstrate the good faith of the British and Europeans and confirm that the goal is not an end to the conflict as an end in itself, but a just peace. A possible rejection by Trump of the Starmer-Macron plan, dictated by Moscow’s niet, would be tantamount to admitting that the only way to peace is the surrender of Ukraine and, in fact, the submission of the US itself to Putin’s will.