Description: Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy met with military representatives from the UK and France in Kyiv, where the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces was discussed. Official representatives from the UK Defense Ministry have stated that such force would need to be bolstered by US support and amount to at least 15 thousand soldiers. The discussions were considered as a prelude towards further negotiations which would be held in Brussels in the near future. Russian and Ukrainian air forces in the meantime continued to exchange attacks, as Russian drones targeted Zelenskyy’s hometown Kryvyi Ryih where up to 9 children were killed in the attacks and 50 other civilians.
Impact: Zelenskyy’s meeting with EU leaders reiterates the discombobulated state of the hypothetical peace agreement for the war in Ukraine. Presently, discussions are secluded as the US and Russia are approaching the war in a different manner than Ukraine and its European allies. The repeated refusals from Russia to succumb towards a complete halt of military operations and formalize a ceasefire, signal that the Trump administration’s approach towards the conflict has offered no constructive results. Tensions between Europe and Russia would escalate in the upcoming months as Ukraine remains in an uncharted territory in the war, facing existential threats from Russian aggression.