BERLIN, February 17. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it is too early to discuss the involvement of the country’s armed forces in a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
"It is very important that we realize that, unfortunately, we are still far away from this," Scholz said at a campaign event in the city of Kassel, the DPA news agency reported.
According to the chancellor, the question now is how to ensure peace without making decisions behind Ukraine's back.
"It is quite clear to me that the focus should be on a very strong Ukrainian army, even in peacetime," he said. "This will be the most important task for Europe, the United States and international allies."
As long as the armed conflict goes on, sending European troops to Ukraine is out of the question.
"And the issues that need to be discussed regarding the security architecture will be discussed when the time comes," he stated.
German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann also said it is too early to discuss sending German soldiers to Ukraine.
"We have said multiple times that first we need to wait and see if and how peace comes to Ukraine, and then we can talk about the terms and consider how that can be achieved. But in principle we believe it is too early at this point," she said.
Earlier, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph that the UK is prepared to send troops to Ukraine to provide a security guarantee for the authorities in Kiev to resolve the conflict. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would have the potential to cause consequences that would be extremely negative, or even irreversible.
EU leaders are set to hold an informal meeting in Paris on February 17 to discuss the Ukrainian conflict and Europe’s self-sufficiency in providing its own security. Hoffmann said Scholz will attend the gathering, but Berlin doesn’t expect it to bring any concrete results.