STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine as part of any postwar peacekeeping force, public broadcaster Swedish Radio reported on Monday, citing comments by the country’s foreign minister.
The minister’s comments came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was ready to send British troops to Ukraine for peacekeeping duties as he tried to show the U.S. that European nations should have a role in talks on ending the war.
“We must now first negotiate a just and sustainable peace that respects international law, that respects Ukraine and that first and foremost ensures Russia can’t just pull back, build new strength and attack Ukraine or another country in just a few years’ time,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in an interview.
“Once we have such a peace established we need to ensure it can be maintained and then our government doesn’t exclude anything,” she added.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of expected talks with Russian officials aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Helen Popper)