“Europe at a crossroads”: Open letter calls for 180,000 European troops to defend Ukraine

500 European intellectuals implore Europe to send boots on the ground ahead of another possible Russian invasion (European troops)(E

Published in EuroMaidan Press, 24 April 2025

500 prominent European figures, including Nobel laureate Harvey J. Alter, have signed an open letter urging European governments to deploy 180,000 troops to defend Ukraine’s borders against Russian aggression. The appeal comes as a “Coalition of the Willing” – now encompassing 30 countries led by the UK and France – has been formed to create a “reassurance force” for Ukraine. While only France and the UK have officially committed troops so far, the coalition is working on the details of deploying forces to strategic locations like cities, ports, and power plants across Ukraine, though not along front lines. Concerns continue to grow about Belarus’s Zapad-2025 military exercises potentially serving as a prelude to a new invasion of Ukraine.

Appeal to European heads of state and government

Either Europe follows in the footsteps of President Trump’s political decisions, taken without any real consultation with the other NATO member countries, or, drawing on its own strengths, Europe decides to assert Ukraine’s security interests as well as its own.

For most NATO member countries, there can be no future security in Europe without a clear and indisputable military defeat for Russia in Ukraine. This is the indispensable and most likely sufficient condition for creating the foundation not for a change of regime, which will be up to the Russians alone to decide, but for replacing the war clan currently in power in Moscow with a group of pragmatic leaders, willing to break with the imperialist policy pursued by the current Russian authorities.

European countries must also take note of the Trump Administration’s refusal to integrate Ukraine into NATO and the American President’s inability to formulate a serious alternative in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.

European governments must send European troops

We therefore urge the European governments, on the basis of the request made by the American President, to anticipate the stationing of peacekeeping forces by:

• immediately deploying a force of 30,000 soldiers to reinforce the Ukrainian forces responsible for defending the 1,000 km border between Belarus and Ukraine, in order to circumscribe the risks of a possible direct involvement of Belarus in the war;

• prepositioning a force of 50,000 soldiers capable of reinforcing within three months the Ukrainian forces responsible for defending the borders between Russia and Ukraine in the oblasts of Sumy and Kharkiv;

• preparing a force of 100,000 soldiers ready, as soon as the Russian forces have withdrawn from Ukraine or have been defeated by the Ukrainian army, to participate alongside the Ukrainian forces in defending the border between Russia and Ukraine in the oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk.

  
  

The mandate of these European armed forces is limited to defending Ukraine’s international borders by preventing or neutralising any attempted incursion or invasion by the Russian army. As part of this mandate, these forces are integrated into Ukraine’s overall military posture. These European troops will contribute to European safety while defending Ukraine.

The full list of signatories can be viewed here.