Deploy British and French Armies to Ukraine, Warships to Black Sea, to End Ukraine War Says Former NATO Boss

The only way to end the Ukraine war is for Europe’s largest militaries to immediately deploy their troops there and “push for peace”, the former Secretary General of NATO has said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is “siding with Putin” and European states must use force to bring the Ukraine war to an end and ensure they have a seat at the negotiating table at the end of it, former NATO Secretary General between 2009-2014 Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said in a series of statements. Rasmussen, who was Prime Minister of Denmark before his tenure at the top of the Western security alliance, spoke as trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States took place but where European delegates were kept out of the room, a matter of evident anguish for the defence leader and Ukraine advisor.

Speaking to Euronews earlier this week, Rasmussen said: “Europe is begging for a place at the table, but you cannot beg your way to a seat at the table, you have to make yourself indispensable by bringing assets to the table”. He subsequently added: “Europe will not talk its way to the negotiating table. We must force our way there, with action.”

As for what these assets and actions might be, the former NATO boss followed up with The Daily Telegraph overnight to be explicit that European powers should take a place at the table by becoming directly involved in the conflict. Decrying the inactivity of the Anglo-French-led ‘Coalition of the Willing’, which plans to deploy a “reassurance” force only after the war is over and a ceasefire is signed, Rasmussen said it is now acting more like a “Coalition of the Waiting”.

Rasmussen said: “We should transform that into a ‘coalition of the doing’ by deploying troops… you could not wait for a peace deal but actually push for peace by telling Putin ‘you cannot deter us, and we will help the Ukrainians defend against attacks against their critical infrastructure'”. Per the report, Anglo-French troops deployed to Ukraine under Rasmussen’s plan would be stationed in rear-echelon areas defending Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, freeing up Ukrainian more troops to be sent to the front lines to defeat Russia.

The former NATO boss explained his view that Russia will never meaningfully engage with the peace process — a nod to the longstanding European accusation that Putin only uses the peace talks as a means to string out the war and eke out advantage — while it believes it has a hope of military victory. Europe must “change his calculus, we need to put more pressure on Russia”, Rasmussen said, adding in other remarks: “Changing Putin’s calculus requires a show of strength. And that means going further than we have gone before.”

Rasmussen has a plan for how Europe can “seize control over the end of Putin’s war”, and it goes further than merely sending British and French soldiers to Ukraine today. In his bullet point list, he calls on European nations to give the cold shoulder to any ally that isn’t ready to deploy to Ukraine and potentially fight Russia, and to hand over their entire stocks of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. While this may leave nations like Poland and Germany defenceless from missile attack, Ukraine needs them now while they do not, he says.

Also on the list is Europe stopping buying energy from Russia — as despite all the rhetoric, it hasn’t — and hand over all frozen Russian assets directly to Ukraine to help fund their defence, around $200 billion.

These remarks followed by hours others made this week by Rasmussen when he spoke to Euronews, where he accused U.S. President Donald Trump of “siding with Putin” in peace talks, making it essential that European nations help Ukraine to fight more than ever. He said as well as European land forces being rushed to Ukraine to help defeat Russia, there should be a naval mission in the Black Sea to confront the Russian Navy.

Rasmussen told the publication: “we should establish a Black Sea sentry, like we have in the Baltic sea. We should establish a maritime mission in the Black Sea to ensure free navigation… I’m not sure it should be a NATO mission, but it would be a Turkish-Bulgarian-Romanian mission”.

As previously reported, Rasmussen is a key voice in Europe calling for enhanced support to Kyiv to avoid what he says is an emerging “forever war” on the continent. Last year, he called for a pan-European drone shield to also encompass Ukraine, and also decried the then-new Coalition of the Willing for not putting “boots on the ground” in Ukraine immediately.