Talk from Whitehall is now less about a legally defined (and constrained) “Peacekeeping Force” and more about a standing deployment of a Coalition of Armies to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Asking for “strateic patience” in this situation sounds very much like we are going back in time to the origins of NATO in 1949.
At that time, the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) changed from being an occupying force to focus more on the increasing threat of invasion of West Germany by the Soviet Union. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Allied Armies, BAOR kept the peace in Europe for forty years until the end of the Cold War in 1989.
It is clear that there will be no UN Security Council Resolution to provide a mandate for a “British Army of the Dneiper”. Nor is it likely that traditional peacekeeping principles would apply. Putin has already said there will be no Russian consent to NATO troops in Ukraine; the Force is unlikely to be impartial; and the Rules of Engagement will not be restricted, so it will be “Minimum Force”, rather than “Self-Defence”.
Although France is willing to share the burden of this intervention force, it needs more of the NATO Members to commit effective troops to the Mission. Hopefully, we can rely on some of the former Warsaw Pact, Scandanavian and Mediterranian countries as well as a vitally important North American Ally – Canada.
British Peacekeeping In Bosnia
Rupert Wieloch 