2025-07-10
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A group of mostly European allies, known as the Coalition of the Willing,
spent months contemplating plans to get together a reassurance force that would involve thousands of European troops helping to keep the peace in Ukraine,
after any ceasefire deal with Russia.
But as time has gone by, the plans have been cut back.
Now, it seems unlikely that we'll see any boots on the ground.
Joining us to discuss what happened to those plans is the defence commentator and writer Elliot Wilson.
Elliot, this idea came along in a rush.
What exactly was being mooted by these allies?
Well, it's all been very strange.
The idea of a coalition of the willing that Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron really pioneered came very suddenly after it was made very clear to European powers that America was no longer really that committed to European security and was going to scale back its commitment,
particularly in terms of supplying Ukraine with military aid.
And as soon as that happened, there was a sort of lurch forward in the European position of saying,
right, well, as soon as as soon as there's a peace agreement, because at that point,
there was some sort of desultory peace negotiation going on,