Latvian PM explains her vision of sending European troops to Ukraine

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa has said that until recently, the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine had been seen as a joint NATO mission, but there is reason to anticipate an alternative European proposal.

As reported by Delfi, Siliņa emphasised the need to discuss whether it is necessary to create some kind of coalition of states that are capable of ensuring peace in Ukraine and willing to do so.

"We need to talk about whether this is being done and what the legal framework will be because so far we have all seen it as a joint NATO mission," she said.

The Latvian prime minister believes that it is necessary to prepare scenarios for an alternative European proposal.

Siliņa said that the Baltic and Scandinavian regions are closely coordinating their actions and are ready for this.

"Today we are going to talk about our proposal for joint negotiations," Siliņa said.

She also noted that if it is to be an EU-only mission, then everyone needs to come to an agreement, including about who will command the forces and what guarantees will be given to soldiers if they are sent on this mission.

"We have ready-made scenarios, but we have to agree on this big framework," she said.

Siliņa stressed that taking into account the current situation, it is necessary to be quite practical about the steps that Ukraine expects, including Ukraine's early accession to the EU, which, in her opinion, is the minimum that Europe can do.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in favour of sending European troops to Ukraine but stressed that this could only happen on a very limited scale and far from the conflict zones.

Meanwhile, The Times reported that the UK is considering sending Typhoon fighter jets to Ukraine to carry out an air patrol mission.

The UK thinks that such a move could help avoid the deployment of large numbers of troops on Ukrainian territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it would be unacceptable for Russia to deploy troops from NATO member states on the territory of Ukraine after an agreement on the settlement of the war is reached.