Deployment of Western soldiers could help underpin post-war settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are discussing sending British and French soldiers to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force after any potential deal to end the war, The Telegraph understands.
The French president is championing the idea and has already talked about it with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister.
Press spokesmen for Downing Street and the Elysée Palace did not dispute that Sir Keir and Mr Macron discussed the possibility during their meeting at Chequers last week.
Details of the conversations are being kept under wraps by officials in London and Paris. However, multiple well-placed UK government sources have stressed Sir Keir is not yet fully signed up.
One Whitehall source told The Telegraph: “There are challenges over what we could support, what would we want to support, and the broader question about the threat that those troops may be under and whether that is escalatory.”
The proposal comes as European leaders scramble to work out how to continue supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty as president-elect Donald Trump pushes for Kyiv to strike a peace deal with Russia.
Mr Trump enters the White House on Monday. He has rowed back on his campaign promise to end the conflict on “day one” as US president but aims to do so in the first six months of his administration.
Sir Keir has long been expected to visit Ukraine in the early new year, in what would be seen as a symbolic show of support for Mr Zelensky as US backing wavers.
Publicly, the UK Government’s position is that Western allies should give Mr Zelensky as much support as possible, with the Ukrainians deciding when and if to hold peace talks.
In private, ministers and officials are expecting Mr Trump to force Ukraine and Russia to get around the negotiating table, with attempts now underway to map out what would happen next.
One idea now increasingly being talked about, not just in public debate but behind closed doors in Westminster, is whether Western troops may need to guarantee any peace terms.
The thinking revolves around the idea that Russia could keep Ukrainian land it has captured as part of a peace deal – though much uncertainty about that prospect remains.
Should that happen, European leaders have been thinking about what can be done to make sure the remaining territory of Ukraine is protected from any future Russian attacks.
The challenge is that Mr Trump’s past criticism of deploying soldiers abroad, and his political attacks on financial support for Ukraine, mean it is unlikely US troops would take part. Multiple UK officials have come to this conclusion.
One US-floated idea is that Western soldiers could man an 800-mile border between the new Ukrainian and Russian borders, with a demilitarised “buffer” zone established.
Mr Macron is pushing the idea that European allies could be deployed on the ground to play such a role. Some of his discussions with other leaders have become public.
The French president and Mr Tusk discussed the proposal in mid-December. Mr Tusk played down the idea at the time, saying Warsaw was not “planning any such actions”.
Mr Macron and Mr Zelensky also talked about the potential plans on Monday.
The Ukrainian president wrote on X: “[We] agreed to work closely with key allies on achieving peace and developing effective security guarantees.
“As one such guarantee, we discussed the French initiative to deploy military contingents in Ukraine. We addressed practical steps for its implementation, potential expansion, and the involvement of other nations in this effort.”
British officials have stressed they are yet to fully endorse the proposal. One Government source told The Telegraph: “We are getting slightly ahead of ourselves. We are not there yet.”
However, that the discussions are happening shows the degree to which Downing Street is determined to keep supporting Ukraine, even after Mr Trump takes office.
Any commitment of troops, should it happen, would put significant new pressure on the Ministry of Defence’s budget at a time when the Treasury is looking for spending cuts.
In the spring Sir Keir will unveil his timeline for increasing UK defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product a year, up from around 2.3 per cent, but it remains unclear if the level can be reached before 2030.
A deployment could involve thousands of British troops at a time when military leaders have already warned that the UK does not have the capacity to fight a war.
It would also risk being seen as an escalation by Russia – a framing Downing Street has always rejected. Successive prime ministers have resisted announcing that British soldiers will be deployed in Ukraine ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Ukraine is not part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), which has a rule that an attack on one member is an attack on all, though the UK wants it to join one day.
Questions about whether a no-fly zone would be established over the new Ukrainian land mass, and how it could be enforced, would also be sure to be raised.
Boris Johnson, the former Tory prime minister, has expressed interest in the West putting boots on the ground in Ukraine as a peacekeeping force.
Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory foreign secretary, and two former defence secretaries – Grant Shapps and Sir Gavin Williamson – have also publicly backed the idea.
A UK Government spokesman said: “The UK is taking a leading role in supporting Ukraine, which is why the Prime Minister committed £3 billion a year of military support for Ukraine for as long as it takes, and this year the UK will spend more than it ever has on military funding for Ukraine.
“Our focus remains on bolstering Ukraine’s defence, and we continue to push international partners to ramp up their financial support to Ukraine to ensure Putin loses.
“The Prime Minister has also made a clear commitment to speak regularly with President Zelensky, and have met in person six times, including hosting him at No 10 twice.”
Ben Riley-Smith Political Editor. Henry Samuel. Joe Barnes Brussels Correspondent.
A spokesman for the Elysée Palace declined to comment.
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