MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Deployment of peacekeepers will not be able to ensure peace in Ukraine, but may trigger a direct conflict between NATO and Russia, said Poland’s Defense Minister Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh.
"The presence of the military does not guarantee peace," Kosinyak-Kamysh said as broadcast by TVN24.
He cited the example of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
"If you look at the UN mission in Lebanon, soldiers are no assurance of peace. There is a UN mission in Lebanon, we are also participating in it together with several dozen states, and this mission has not ensured peace even on the line along which they are stationed," the minister explained.
The minister also said that the presence in Ukraine of NATO countries, especially Poland, could provoke a direct armed conflict between Moscow and the alliance.
"What happens if there are military personnel from a state bordering Russia and it comes to Russians firing at them and killing some of them? And how should we react then - it will mean the beginning of an armed conflict, an invocation of Article 5 [of the NATO Treaty]," he said.
Western troops in Ukraine
It was reported earlier that discussions are underway among Western European countries about the deployment of French, British, and Polish contingents to "secure a future ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine." On February 17, at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, negotiations were organized in Paris between the leaders of eight European countries, as well as representatives of EU and NATO institutions. The meeting ended without a joint statement.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was the first to leave the Paris meeting, did not hide his frustration over discussions about sending European military personnel to participate in a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine and called such debates completely premature. According to media reports, the Prime Ministers of Spain and Italy, Pedro Sanchez and Giorgio Meloni, also spoke out against it. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed that the issue of sending troops to Ukraine was not up for debate in his country, and Warsaw could only provide logistical support to a potential peacekeeping mission. Macron later said in an interview with La Depeche newspaper that France was not preparing to send troops to Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump said he would not object to the deployment European peacekeepers to Ukraine. However, the US administration made it clear that American troop involvement was not under consideration.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Russia has a negative attitude towards the idea of deploying European peacekeepers in Ukraine, and called it a step towards escalation.