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Sharp differences emerge at Paris meeting over troop deployment in Ukraine — newspaper

According to the report, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain said they were reluctant to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, hours after the UK proposed a possible deployment of European forces there

LONDON, February 18. /TASS/. An emergency meeting on Ukraine in Paris with the participation of representatives of a number of European states showed that there is no consensus among the allies on further actions to support Ukraine, including sending peacekeepers there, the Financial Times reported.

"European countries clashed over sending troops to Ukraine as they began a crisis meeting intended to reach a consensus on how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s peace talks with Russia," the newspaper said. According to it, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain said they were reluctant to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, hours after the UK proposed a possible deployment of European forces there.

The newspaper's sources present at the meeting also said that France had proposed such a deployment of troops behind the future line of contact. But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking after the Paris meeting, called the discussion of troop deployments "highly inappropriate" given the ongoing conflict.

Such a "discussion is completely premature and now is not the right time for it," he said. The politician pointed out that this debate comes "at the wrong time and on the wrong subject."

Earlier, in an article for The Daily Telegraph, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was ready to send troops to Ukraine as a security guarantee for the authorities in Kiev to resolve the conflict. However, he conditioned the possible deployment of European troops in Ukraine on guarantees from the United States. According to him, this requires support from Washington. He intends to discuss key elements of long-term peace with US President Donald Trump during his visit to Washington next week.

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