The coalition of the willing (CoW) is a coalition of 34 countries (plus Ukraine) that have pledged strengthened support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, going further than the support delivered by the Ukraine Defense Contact Group by pledging readiness to be part of a peacekeeping force deployed on Ukrainian territory, either by providing troops or contributing in other ways. The peacekeeping force is envisaged to be deployed only the moment Ukraine and Russia sign a "comprehensive ceasefire agreement" or "peace deal" to settle the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. The initiative, led by the United Kingdom and France, was announced by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on 2 March 2025, following the 2025 London Summit on Ukraine under the motto "securing our future".
The stated aim of the initiative is to facilitate the peace negotiation attempts launched and mediated by the United States between Ukraine and Russia in February 2025, by helping to build strong enough security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure that a potential reached ceasefire or peace deal would be lasting. Besides building a potential peacekeeping force, the coalition have expressed readiness to increase military support for Ukraine and strengthen economic sanctions against Russia in the event that the ongoing negotiations for a "comprehensive ceasefire" or "peace deal" fail. As of 20 March 2025, its exact shape and function was still being planned, but the coalition was moving into an "operational phase".
Background and chronology
According to a report from Le Monde, in late November 2024 Paris and London were discussing taking the lead in a coalition to be deployed in Ukraine, on terms not then defined. This was in light of Trump's return to the White House and the prospect of American disengagement from Kyiv. The option of sending troops to Ukraine, the debate on which French President Emmanuel Macron had launched at a meeting of Kyiv's allies in Paris in February 2024, was strongly opposed by some European countries, led by Germany. This scenario had not been buried however and was revived during the visit of British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer to France for the 11 November Armistice Day ceremonies. On 1 March 2025, Czech president Petr Pavel made a social media post on X, calling for the formation of a coalition of the willing to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.
March–August 2025 Building upon these bilateral discussions aiming at creating a hard core of allies in Europe focused on Ukraine and wider European security, Starmer hosted, on 2 March 2025, the London Summit on Ukraine with Macron, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy and sixteen other world leaders, in order to coordinate support for Ukraine. Starmer characterised the meeting as addressing a "once-in-a-generation moment" for European security, stating that the time had come for decisive action rather than continued deliberation, and officially announced Britain and France would lead a European "coalition of the willing" to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and enable peace negotiations with Russia. The announcement came two days after a meeting between Zelenskyy and United States President Trump with Vice President Vance at the White House on 28 February.
On 11 March 2025, the military chiefs of staff of 30 European and Commonwealth nations, as well as Japan, met in Paris for talks on the creation of an international security force for Ukraine to maintain peace should a ceasefire come into effect. On 15 March, Starmer held a virtual meeting with leaders from European and Commonwealth nations to assemble the "coalition of the willing" to consider options for a "reassurance force" to be deployed within Ukraine to deter renewed Russian attacks against the country should a ceasefire be agreed. The meeting gathered the leaders of 26 countries, including several European countries, Ukraine, Turkey, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as representatives from the European Commission and NATO.
On 20 March 2025, the exact shape and function of the coalition was described as still being subject to ongoing planning, but moved into an "operational phase" marked by the gathering of a meeting of military officials from 31 countries. No final decisions were announced after the meeting, but some media reported the participants had contemplated that the coalition could have two different designs depending on whether or not it should be deployed to defend a ceasefire agreement or a peace deal. Five military sub-planning groups (land, sea, air, regeneration and reconstruction) will reconvene the military officials from the 31 countries to continue discussions across three intensive planning days from 24 to 26 March at the Northwood Headquarters in England.
The coalition then met again for a third high-level summit in Paris on 27 March, with an agenda to finalise the plans on how the coalition shall be designed and deployed as a military force to ensure that a potential ceasefire will be lasting for Ukraine. The agenda of the summit included drafting and debating a peace treaty proposal written by the coalition, drafting and debating how the coalition can secure a "complete ceasefire" acceptable to Ukraine, bolster aid to Ukraine (with each participating country expected to outline what it is prepared to do), and agreeing on a plan for providing long-term support for the Ukrainian army. The outcome of the meeting was unanimous agreement that: No sanctions against Russia could be lifted as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement. A potential sanctions relief should instead be conditioned on reaching a peace deal. Defense chiefs from Ukraine, France and UK should soon meet in Ukraine to conduct the next stage of the detailed planning for setting up a potential reassurance force (determining the number of soldiers and type of military equipment required to be deployed after a reached peace deal, in order to deter and respond to a subsequently potential renewed Russian aggression).
On 24 April 2025, The Times reported that British officials considered deploying a ground force to defend Ukraine too risky and that the plan was likely to be abandoned, with military trainers deployed to Western Ukraine instead. On 29 April 2025, it reported that Europe "would struggle to put 25,000 troops on the ground in Ukraine". Lithuania's defense minister Dovile Sakaliene reportedly said "Russia has 800,000 [troops]. Let me tell you this, if we can't even raise 64,000 that doesn't look weak – it is weak."
On 17 July 2025, a week after signing Lancaster Declaration with France, the UK, as represented by defence secretary John Healey, provided an update to the House of Commons on the war in Ukraine revealing command structure, components, and supposed name of the coalition force – Multinational Force Ukraine. The name was confirmed on 17 August in the coalition statement. Joined by NATO military chiefs between 19 and 21 August, coalition planners held virtual meetings on Ukraine with focus on security guarantees design.
September–November 2025 In September 2025, the Coalition's Multinational Force–Ukraine (MNF-U) established its strategic joint command headquarters in Fort Mont Valerien, Paris, co-led by France and the United Kingdom. This development marked the transition from theoretical planning to operational readiness, creating a structure to oversee the coalition's future non-combat stabilization mission.
After the 4 September Coalition summit in Paris, Macron announced that 26 nations had formally pledged to deploy troops as part of a "reassurance force" committed to roles including air policing, naval mine-clearing, and training, with deployment conditional on a ceasefire. By late October, the United Kingdom confirmed its specific contributions to securing Ukraine's "skies and seas," a commitment formally reiterated in the House of Lords on October 31 by minister of State for Development, FCDO, baroness Jenny Chapman in the ministerial statement.
Diplomatic friction with Russia intensified in November 2025. On November 17, the Paris headquarters was formally inaugurated. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded an explicit ban on Western military deployments on Ukrainian soil as a precondition for any peace agreement. Diplomatic efforts culminated in late November. Following intense US-Ukrainian talks in Geneva on 23 November, a controversial US-drafted "28-point" peace plan — widely criticized as pro-Russian — was replaced by a revised "19-point proposal" more acceptable to Ukraine. Two days later, on November 25, coalition leaders met to formalize a dedicated working group to align European security guarantees with American diplomatic efforts, joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The same day, Macron announced the creation of mentioned group to define the technical specifics of the military support.# France and the UK subsequently inaugurated this working group to define the final contributions, mandates, and security guarantees of the MNF-U.# Its mandate is to determine the specific security guarantees and national contributions for proposed MNF-U, with the participation of the United States and Turkey.
In addition to summits, the coalition has convened its second ministerial (3 September, NATO HQ, Brussels) and first announced directors-level (4 November, Madrid) meetings.
December 2025 – present
, the coalition focused on bridging European "Article 5-style" security commitments and the skepticism regarding their credibility without direct US combat involvement. In a December briefing by European Parliament Research Service, Coalition was suggested as an 'option of last resort' for financing 2026–27 Ukrainian security needs. On 8 December, following a meeting with European leaders in London (of UK, France, Germany, Ukraine; and with the leaders of Italy, Finland, President of the European Commission and Secretary general of NATO participating virtually in the second part of the meeting by video link), president Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine and its European partners had prepared a revised 20-point proposal to be shared with the US, stressing that while the talks were "productive," there was still no agreement on ceding any Ukrainian territory, a compromise he stated Kyiv would never accept. The next day, news agencies specified three documents under discussion (the revised 20-point framework proposal for a peace plan, a reconstruction plan for Ukraine to be implemented after a reached ceasfire or peace, and a security guarantee agreement to be agreed between Ukraine, United States and the Coalition of the Willing), with the document about the security guarantees being requested by Ukraine and its European supporters to be 'aligned with the principles of the Coalition of the Willing'.
The 11 December coalition's virtual summit official statements confirmed inviolability of borders principle and ongoing discussions regarding the detailed planning for a proposed European reassurance force as a component of the robust security guarantees being developed. The same day discussions were followed by the online meeting between Ukraine and US part of the working group on security guarantees, and later on by the series of meetings – culminating in the European leaders summit, along with Steven Witkoff, on 15 December 2025 – in Stuttgart and Berlin starting 13 December 2025. Coalition, along the multinational force referred by the New York Times as 'European forces', was mentioned in the press statement of the 15 December European summit.
In June 2026, with a €90 billion loan over two years from the EU for increasing Ukrainian defence, President Zelenskyy said his government will raise military wages and recruit foreign soldiers to counter manpower shortages, however in August 2026, Zelenskyy asked allies for an additional €23 billion of funding for a military spending shortfall.
High-level meetings