France and UK commit to deploying troops to Ukraine if ceasefire is agreed with Russia
Volodymyr Zelensky President of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron President of France and Keir Starmer Prime Minister of Great Britain sign a Declaration of Intent to deploy forces to Ukraine in event of a peace deal, during the ‘Coalition Of The Willing’ meeting at Elysee Palace on January 6, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo b
(PARIS, France) — France, the U.K. and Ukraine signed a “Declaration of Intent” on Tuesday to send their forces to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
British, French and partner forces would be on the ground, establishing “military hubs” across Ukraine, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s armed forces would use the protective facilities to retain Ukraine’s defensive needs, Starmer said.
Also present at the security summit on Tuesday in Paris were White House envoy Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Merz said in a statement after the meeting that Germany could deploy forces for Ukraine on neighboring NATO territory after a ceasefire was established, but added, “I want to say for myself and also for the Federal Government that we are not fundamentally ruling anything out.”
During a press conference following the talks, Kushner said the agreement was a “real milestone,” but warned that peace is some way off.
“This does not mean we will make peace,” he said. “But peace would not be possible without the progress we made today.”
The outcome of the talks suggests the U.S. and Europe are more aligned on security guarantees and how a ceasefire should be policed after any deal. But Russia has given no indication it would be prepared to accept a deal that includes such guarantees.
The pledge by France and the U.K. to deploy troops into Ukraine could further complicate negotiations. The Kremlin has repeatedly ruled out any presence of NATO countries’ forces in Ukraine after any deal.
The Kremlin has repeatedly ruled out any presence of NATO countries’ forces in Ukraine after any deal.
During the press conference, Starmer also hailed the progress on security guarantees but noted that “the hardest yards are still ahead.”
This is all about building the practical foundations on which peace would rest,” he said.
“But we can only get to a peace deal if Putin is ready to make compromises. And so, we have to be frank. For all Russia’s words, Putin is not showing that he is ready for peace.”
Zelenskyy released a statement on the agreement, saying, “We understand which country is ready for what among all members of the Coalition of the Willing.”
“I would like to thank every leader and every state that truly wishes to be part of a peaceful solution,” he added.
Denmark’s then-Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod speaks to the press in Brussels, Belgium, on July 18, 2022. (Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images_
(LONDON )– Denmark’s new government was less than two months old when U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to acquire Greenland broke into public view in the summer of 2019.
“We thought it was unprecedented,” recalled former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who then was in post and suddenly tasked with a transcontinental fire drill.
Trump’s desire for what he at the time called “essentially a large real estate deal” threw a wrench in the works of a planned state visit by the president to Denmark. The president ultimately cancelled the trip, saying Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had shown “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”
Frederiksen at the time rejected Trump’s proposal as “absurd.”
Kofod, who has since left Danish politics, told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday that the 2019 saga was “a really bad situation for the bilateral relationship.”
“We also saw it as offending a close ally,” Kofod recalled. “We were very surprised that the first major comments he had were, ‘Why can’t I just buy Greenland?'”
Copenhagen, he said, never considered formulating a price for Greenland’s potential sale.
At the time, though, Danish leaders did not believe Trump was “determined” to force a U.S. acquisition of the world’s largest island, Kofod said. Rather, the Danish government saw the proposal as a means to foster more U.S. engagement in and influence over Greenland.
Nearly seven years later, Kofod’s successors — again under the leadership of Frederiksen — have faced a more protracted and aggressive campaign from Washington. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. will acquire Greenland — “one way or another,” he said earlier this month.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump’s second term has seen the president double down on his ambition to acquire the minerals-rich island — despite Danish and Greenlandic politicians repeatedly rebuffing him.
Trump has suggested that U.S. sovereignty over Greenland is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. A 1951 defense agreement already grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, but Trump has suggested the accord is inadequate and has demanded “ownership.”
The issue dominated this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump said in a Wednesday address that he would not use military force to seize control of the Arctic landmass.
On Wednesday, Trump said during the event that a “framework” of a deal had been reached on Greenland after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Details of the purported agreement are yet to be revealed.
Frederikson said in a Thursday morning statement that Copenhagen “cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a Thursday press conference that Nuuk is “willing to do more in a NATO frame,” but also said they have some “red lines” including territorial integrity, international law and sovereignty.
In Davos on Wednesday, Trump said that Greenland’s mineral deposits are “not the reason we need it,” though also said the professed deal “puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
Trump’s professed security concerns have prompted Danish efforts to increase military spending in the Arctic and the deployment of small contingents of NATO troops to Greenland.
But the deployments — which the eight European nations involved said were for military exercises to enhance the defense of the region — prompted Trump at the time to threaten new tariffs against the American allies starting on Feb. 1 unless the U.S. was able to acquire Greenland.
That raised the prospect of a new transatlantic trade war, though Trump said Wednesday that he would drop the tariffs citing the purported deal.
European and allied leaders have said they are open to deeper and broader cooperation with the U.S. in Greenland, to address American security concerns and to develop shared commercial opportunities across the mammoth, resources-rich territory.
For Kofod — who said his time in office saw Copenhagen and Washington forge a “path forward” despite tensions over Greenland — any deal should be twinned with a European show of force.
“The first step is power,” Kofod said. Trump may soften his attacks “if he sees that he will have all of Europe — including the U.K., France, Germany — against him, and they are ready to defend Greenland,” Kofod said, plus if he sees that European “retaliation is so massive that it will hurt the U.S. economy and interests.”
“Trump plays with all the instruments he has. Europe has to learn to play the power game,” Kofod said, and “move him to a narrower path if this is going to stop.”
The Danish and Greenlandic experience in 2019 bears striking similarities to 2026. Then, as now, Trump set off a diplomatic storm by repeatedly declaring his ambitions to take control of Greenland.
In both instances, Copenhagen and the Greenlandic government in its capital Nuuk responded by expressing openness to further collaboration, stressing the importance of sovereignty and dispatching a high-level delegation for talks in Washington.
Kofod said the de-escalation of tensions in 2019 was achieved through closer cooperation and modernization in the security sphere. “We took the security concerns of Trump very seriously,” he said.
The period spanning Trump’s first term and that of his successor, President Joe Biden, saw the U.S. reopen its consulate in Nuuk, modernize the Thule Air Base — since renamed to the Pituffik Space Base — and agree a new economic cooperation strategy in Greenland.
Copenhagen and Nuuk, Kofod said, encouraged “constructive engagement” with the U.S. in investment, education programs, tourism and other areas.
Similar measures might help ease the current round of pressure in the High North, Kofod said.
But he added that the future of the Arctic — which was long considered an area of scientific work largely free of geopolitical tensions — will be inextricably tied to security considerations.
Climate change, the subsequent melting of pack ice and the opening of new sea lanes is making the Arctic more navigable and — potentially — more lucrative. Russia’s 15,000 miles of Arctic coastline puts Moscow at the forefront in the region, while China’s declaration of itself as a “near-Arctic state” indicates Beijing’s long-term interest there.
“That’s why Trump is right on the concern about security in the future of the Arctic,” Kofod said. “Any U.S. president will find Greenland key to defending North America and the United States.”
Trump’s efforts “fit his ideology,” Kofod said, saying his bid to acquire Greenland despite broad opposition aligns with the “Donroe Doctrine” — a play on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine by which the U.S. said it would block European interference in the Western Hemisphere — which has in recent weeks been professed by members of Trump’s administration and noted by the president himself.
“There is something to that, that I think Europe hasn’t taken seriously enough,” Kofod said. “But now they are taking it seriously.”
The turbulence will undermine European, American and collective NATO security, Kofod warned.
“For the U.S. it’s also a big self-inflicted problem,” he said. “But I don’t think Trump looks at the world like that. He thinks that NATO is there, it’s important, but it’s not something you cannot live without, because you just can form another alliance.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(LONDON) — No compromise has been reached on the question of territorial control to reach a peace settlement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following his meeting with European leaders on Monday.
“The Americans think we must look for compromises. There are difficult questions about territories. In this regard, there is no compromise for now,” Zelenskyy told reporters on a plane after the meeting in London, translated from Ukrainian.
Following talks in Geneva, Moscow and Miami over the past couple of weeks, the initial 28-point peace plan is now 20 points, Zelenskyy said. Key issues such as territorial control and future Western security guarantees for Ukraine remain unsettled.
Zelenskyy said the “strongest security guarantee” that Ukraine can get would be from the United States, adding, “They are so far reacting positively to such a move.”
The Coalition of the Willing, made up of mostly European leaders, will also provide security guarantees, but Zelenskyy said he has not received an answer on what they would be ready to do in the event of a “repeated aggression from Russia.”
Ahead of traveling to the U.K.,Zelenskyy on Sunday urged “collective pressure on Russia” amid the latest American peace push in Ukraine, and as Moscow and Kyiv both continued their long-range barrages despite renewed diplomatic maneuvers.
“We are starting a new diplomatic week,” Zelenskyy said in posts to social media, saying Ukrainian representatives would be meeting with European counterparts in the coming days.
Zelenskyy said the most pressing questions included “security issues, support for our resilience and support packages for our defense.” For the latter, “air defense and long-term funding for Ukraine” are Kyiv’s prime concerns, he said.
Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian negotiating team held “substantive discussions” with U.S. envoys in recent days, with Kyiv’s delegation — led by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov — now returning to Europe.
“I expect detailed information from them on everything that was said to the American envoys in Moscow, and on the nuances the Americans are prepared to modify in negotiations with us and with the Russians,” Zelenskyy said.
“Ukraine deserves a dignified peace, and whether there will be peace depends entirely on Russia — on our collective pressure on Russia and on the sound negotiating positions of the United States, Europe, and all our other partners,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing — for the daily strikes, for the constant terror against our people, and for the war itself,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump on Sunday appeared to express frustration with the Ukrainian position on the latest U.S.-proposed peace deal, which neither Kyiv nor Moscow have publicly committed to supporting in full.
“We’ve been speaking to President Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters. “I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal — that was as of a few hours ago.”
“His people love it, but he has — Russia’s fine with it,” Trump continued. “Russia’s, you know, Russia, Russia, I guess would rather have the whole country, when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it. But I’m not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”
The U.S. initially presented Kyiv with a 28-point peace plan that critics dismissed as equivalent to Ukrainian capitulation. The blueprint was widely perceived as pro-Russian for its demand that Ukraine surrender territories in the east of the country and cap the size of its military. Nonetheless, Moscow refrained from offering its full backing, though Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the document could “form the basis for future agreements.”
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have since traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin and held meetings with Ukrainian representatives as they sought to firm up a potential framework for a future peace deal.
Long-range Russian drone and missile strikes continued all across Ukraine through the weekend, with Ukrainian officials reporting that the attacks focused on critical energy infrastructure.
On Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 149 drones into the country overnight, of which 131 were shot down or suppressed.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said in a post to Telegram that the continued Russian strikes had caused significant power outages for customers in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
Ukraine also continued its own cross-border strike campaign. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that its forces downed at least 74 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the Moscow region.
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Meghan Mistry contributed to this report.
Fires are lit as protesters rally on January 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Anonymous/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — An extraordinarily violent crackdown by Iranian security forces appears to have succeeded for now in driving protesters from the streets, according to activists and analysts who managed to speak with people inside the country despite the information blackout.
Demonstrations began in late December with protesters chanting in Tehran against rising inflation and the falling value of the national currency before spreading across Iran and becoming more explicitly anti-government. Authorities have shut down the internet in Iran for more than a week as security forces moved to crush the protests.
The internet blackout in Iran continues to make it very difficult to get a clear picture from the ground, but accounts are emerging from people now able to use phone lines, those few with access to working Starlink satellite terminals and Iranians who have recently left the country.
These people describe an eerie calm over Iran’s cities, where heavily armed security forces are deployed on the streets enforcing what many are describing as a de-facto curfew.
Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian activist based in Washington, D.C., says he has helped send in hundreds of Starlink terminals to citizen journalists and others in Iran to help get around the government blackout.
“Unfortunately, the crackdown has been so severe the protests have pretty much come to a halt,” he said told ABC News on Thursday.
“There are security forces everywhere — there is a state of fear,” said Yahyanejad, who co-founded Net Freedom Pioneers, an anti-censorship group.
The smothering of the protests would seem to make U.S. military intervention less likely. President Donald Trump initially signaled there could be possible U.S. military action in support of protesters.
Yahyanejad said in the past few days there are still signs of dissent — people were heard chanting anti-regime slogans from windows. In some neighborhoods groups of youths have also gathered and shouted slogans, before quickly fleeing when security forces arrive.
The death toll from the crackdown continues to grow as more information comes out. The D.C.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, now puts it at more than 3,308 protesters killed since Dec. 28.
A total of 24,266 people have been arrested in the protests since they began, including 2,107 injured protesters with serious wounds, according to HRANA.
ABC News cannot independently verify these numbers. Although there have not been signs of major demonstrations in recent days, human rights groups are continuing to verify the identities of those killed over the weeks of unrest.
The Islamic Republic has not released a death toll, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that thousands have been killed. Other Iranian authorities have said before that two-thirds of those dead are “martyrs” killed by protesters that they describe as “terrorists” and “mercenary agents of Israel and the U.S.”
Yahyanejad said while there was intense anger under the surface still, he doubted the protests would restart unless the U.S. launched strikes.
“I think if there is no action from the U.S., I don’t think they are going to come back that soon,” he said.
Regarding a possible U.S. response, President Donald Trump told reporters Friday afternoon that it was not Arab and Israeli officials who convinced him not to strike Iran, but that he made the decision himself not to strike the country.
“Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself,” Trump said.
Trump applauded the Iranian regime for what he claims is the cancellation of over 800 scheduled hangings on Thursday, according to what he said “are very important sources on the other side.”
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran,” Trump said on his social media platform Friday.
The head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, had suggested Wednesday that there would be expedited trials and executions for those who have been arrested in the nationwide protests. The Iranian government has yet to comment on Trump’s claim that the scheduled hangings have been halted.
Concerns about the safety of injured protesters There are fears the arrests are just beginning as the regime moves to round up protesters, activists and independent analysts told ABC News.
Injured people are frightened to visit hospitals or clinics because security officers are waiting for them there, according to Yahyanejad.
There are also allegations that during the mass killing, some severely injured protesters were removed from hospitals and executed, according to activists and analysts. The accusations are based on videos that show bodies still intubated or with catheters, but with bullet wounds to the head.
Reviewing the pictures of the bodies, Yasser Ghorashi, an Iranian doctor, told ABC News that hospitals in Iran never send a body to the morgue without removing all medical tools and devices.
The Toronto-based Iranian doctor said that he had been in touch with doctors inside the country who reported security forces had raided hospitals and taken injured protesters.
Their accounts match videos verified by ABC News that shows security forces raiding hospitals in Ilam, a city in west Iran, during the early days of the protests.
