Trump Wants European Troops in Ukraine. Europe’s Voters Aren’t Convinced.
The public is wary of the push that some governments are making to deploy thousands of troops in Ukraine if a peace deal is reached
Aug. 26, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
Some countries like Netherlands and Estonia are ready to send troops, while others fear escalation or lack public support.
- European leaders are struggling with public opposition to deploying troops to Ukraine after a peace deal with Russia.
A plan to send thousands of European troops into Ukraine if a peace deal is reached between Kyiv and Moscow is running up against a key skeptic: the European public.
President Trump has recently warmed to the idea of the U.S. providing some form of security guarantees to Ukraine after France and the U.K. proposed sending a so-called “reassurance force” to Ukraine following a peace deal to deter further attacks by Russia.
European leaders, however, are contending with the inconvenient fact that many voters are opposed to any deployment that places troops in harm’s way. Eastern European countries don’t want to divert forces away from their own borders, which form the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Opposition is also fairly widespread in Italy and Germany, which is haunted by the legacy of World War II.
When German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently said he planned to begin consulting parliament about a possible military deployment in Ukraine, the reaction was guarded. His own foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said such a deployment would stretch the Bundeswehr’s capacity since it was already building an armored brigade in Lithuania to protect NATO’s eastern flank. Other political leaders said the discussion was premature since there was no sign a peace deal was imminent.
Any troop deployment by Germany can only be decided by parliament, where the government has a relatively small majority. Opposition parties on the far-right and far-left are all virulently against dispatching troops to Ukraine. And a survey by the Insa polling firm last week showed 56% of respondents opposed a German contribution, a rise compared with the spring.
“I fear the Bundeswehr may not have the capacity to take on such a task without leaving us unprotected at home,” said Leonard Wolters, 28, who works in marketing for a startup in Berlin.
Even in France—one of the main proponents for putting boots on the ground—public support hinges on there being a final peace accord in place, as opposed to a cease-fire. A March survey by pollster Elabe found that 67% of respondents supported sending a French deployment if Kyiv and Moscow reach a peace accord. Without one, 68% of respondents were opposed.
Nicolas Degages, a 45-year-old stage technician in Paris, doesn’t see Russia as a threat to France, while he harbors mistrust of Europe’s leadership. “If we’re in Ukraine to rebuild, fine,” he says. “But if we’re there to create doubts and maintain a war, then there’s no point.”
European officials say it is hard to sell the public on any deployment without a clear statement from the U.S. that European troops will have the backing of the world’s most advanced military. Despite a spate of frenzied diplomacy in the past few weeks, there is still no clarity on what the U.S. would be willing to provide. Trump has ruled out placing troops on the ground while saying the U.S. will have some role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.
Many European leaders say deploying troops in Ukraine is vital to Europe’s security, warning that Russia will march on other parts of Europe if Kyiv falls. Boots on the ground also show Europe’s commitment to protecting Ukraine as Washington considers what kinds of security guarantees to ultimately provide.
Those arguments find majority support in parts of Europe, particularly northern countries. The Netherlands, Denmark and Estonia have said they are ready to contribute troops.
French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to reassure the public that any deployment would be stationed at airports and other key infrastructure, far from any hot zones. Macron and other European leaders have long said that front-line defenses should be left to a well-armed Ukrainian military.
“The objective of these reassurance forces is not to be guarantors of peacekeeping operations. They are not going to hold the border,” Macron said, adding that French forces would “provide strategic support.”
Britain’s involvement also remains caveated. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said such a security force would only be deployed if the U.S. promises to provide a backstop that would provide military assistance to its troops should they come under Russian attack. A majority of the British public are, according to polls, happy for their military to be involved in any peacekeeping mission but wouldn’t want to provoke a direct confrontation with Russia.
Starmer’s government has remained mute on whether British troops in Ukraine would be allowed to fire at Russian soldiers should Ukraine be reinvaded.
Meanwhile, grandiose plans for a 30,000-strong European peacekeeping mission have been pared back in part because Britain’s army doesn’t have enough manpower. France and the U.K. combined are planning to commit between 6,000 and 10,000 troops. Britain’s involvement, officials say, will likely be focused on maritime and air domains, helping police the skies and seas to deter any Russian encroachment. Any army presence will likely focus on training up Ukrainian ground forces.
The push for even a narrowly defined European force, however, is receiving blowback, particularly from the continent’s populists. After European leaders met with Trump in Washington, creating momentum for a U.S.-backed force, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini took aim at Macron for pushing the idea.
“You go there if you want. Put your helmet on, your jacket, your rifle and you go to Ukraine,” said Salvini, leader of the nativist League party.
Poland was one of the biggest donors of support to Ukraine in the first years of the conflict, sending warplanes, tanks, helicopters and armored personnel carriers to the front. But Warsaw has drawn a red line for sending troops to Ukraine as part of a broader U.S.-backed security force.
The risks involved in sending troops to Ukraine run much higher for border countries, Poland says. Its forces, Warsaw argues, could trigger an escalation of the conflict that could spread into Polish territory.
Following the surge of support in 2022 and the large influx of Ukrainian refugees from the war, the conflict has become deeply politicized in Poland, where many advocate a much less active stance on support. In a survey taken by independent pollster United Surveys in March of this year, 58.5% of respondents were strongly against sending troops to Ukraine and 28% responded Poland should “probably not” send troops to the neighboring country.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at Stacy.Meichtry@wsj.com, Bertrand Benoit at bertrand.benoit@wsj.com and Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com
European leaders are struggling with public opposition to deploying troops to Ukraine after a peace deal with Russia.
Trump is open to security guarantees for Ukraine, but the U.S. role remains unclear, impacting European public support.