What we can see is the direction of travel – Europe doing more, UK leadership in bringing our allies together, along with the French. To do that, we want to make sure that we are able to present a plan for a lasting and durable peace that does include the US involvement, because if the US isn’t involved, we will struggle to get that durable peace.
Military deployments are possible. But the point is, we want a durable and lasting peace. And this is where it’s really important to understand the distinction between a short pause, which might be able to be achieved, but that doesn’t sustain a durable peace, because there’s a genuine worry by President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians that a short pause will simply allow the Russian forces to reconstitute, to rearm, to regroup and then to attack again.
Now that’s something that clearly would not be in anyone’s interest, not our security interests, certainly not the Ukrainians, who would suffer consequences for that, but we’ve been absolutely clear, and as has president Trump, that we need a durable, lasting peace. Well, our assessment of that is the only way that can be achieved is with US involvement.
