Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Sept 6, 2024. (Eve Daugherty/U.S. Air Force)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would like to replace some U.S. forces based in Europe with Ukrainian troops once Russia’s war in Ukraine comes to an end.
Zelenskyy pitched the swap during a speech in the Ukrainian Parliament on Wednesday as well as a Thursday appearance before the European Council in Brussels that outlined a “victory plan” for ending the conflict in Ukraine by next year.
“After this war, Ukraine will have one of the most experienced and largest military contingents,” he said Wednesday. “These are people, real people, our soldiers, who will have real experience in modern warfare, successful experience in the use of Western weapons and diverse experience in cooperation with our partners, with NATO troops.”
This wartime experience, Zelenskyy argued, should be used to strengthen NATO’s defense and ensure security in Europe.
“We envision, if the partners agree, replacing certain military contingents of the United States Armed Forces stationed in Europe with Ukrainian units,” he said. “Ukrainians have proven that they can be a force that Russian evil cannot overcome.”
The U.S. has more than 100,000 troops stationed across Europe on a permanent and rotational basis, largely concentrated in Germany. The Defense Department deployed more than 20,000 forces to the Continent in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, a permanent Army garrison has been established in Poland and additional resources have been poured into strengthening NATO’s eastern flank in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Baltic states.
U.S. military leaders consider Russia an “acute threat” but have emphasized the need to focus long-term on countering Chinese dominance and aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.
Zelenskyy said Thursday that replacing some American units in Europe with Ukrainian troops would allow the U.S. “to do more in its priority regions, in the Indo-Pacific or anywhere.”
“But for this, we need to win, of course,” he said.
Ukraine’s victory plan includes the fulfillment of its longstanding goal to join NATO and the lifting of restrictions that prohibit Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia. Zelenskyy presented the plan to President Joe Biden and has pushed it in visits to European capitals in recent weeks.
Biden and Zelenskyy last spoke by phone on Wednesday to discuss the latest $425 million U.S. military aid package to Ukraine. The White House has not commented on Ukraine’s victory plan, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying, “That’s their plan, and let them speak to it.”
The Pentagon did not respond Thursday to a request for comment on Zelenskyy’s proposal to take on the work of American service members stationed in Europe.
The American presence in Europe dates to the end of World War II. At the height of the Cold War, more than 400,000 U.S. troops were stationed on the Continent to deter the Soviet Union.
