Defence secretary: UK ready for "heavy lifting" in Ukraine if Trump wins ceasefire

Britain is preparing to take on the "heavy lifting" in Europe, U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey said, describing a ready-to-deploy coalition that London has been quietly building for months if President Donald Trump secures a Ukrainian ceasefire, according to US media.

Healey stressed that Trump is spearheading peace negotiations, even as European leaders, including Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron, recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss an alternative to a U.S.-brokered proposal Zelenskyy viewed as overly accommodating to Russia.

"We are ready to step in behind the president in his push for peace," Healey said during a briefing with reporters after meeting with U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth on the AUKUS nuclear submarine-building pact.

"We are ready to step in as he forces the pace of the negotiations in the way that only President Trump can. Because if he can get a ceasefire agreement, we are ready to do the heavy lifting in Europe."

Trump has said Ukraine "has to be realistic" about a peace plan that would include ceding territory to Russia, a prospect Zelenskyy has insisted is unacceptable. Merz said Thursday that he, Starmer, and Macron had proposed to Trump that they finalise the peace proposal with U.S. officials over the weekend.

Healey said the U.K. is prepared to send troops and equipment to enforce any signed peace deal.

"For the last six months we've got 200 military planners, over 30 nations working together. We've (made) reconnaissance visits to Ukraine," he said. "We have the troops ready, we have the planes available. We have the ships on standby to be able to deploy."

The comments signal Britain expects to play a central role in enforcing any postwar security arrangement, even as Europe remains divided over the structure of a deal.

Territorial disputes appear to be the main sticking point, while questions remain over what security guarantees the West would offer Ukraine. The initial U.S.-brokered proposal stipulated that Western troops and aircraft remain outside Ukraine in NATO territory.

Western officials are also debating whether any agreement would require a multinational force to monitor front lines or protect key infrastructure inside Ukraine. Healey indicated that Britain and a coalition of more than 30 nations have already positioned forces, aircraft, and ships that could deploy if the deal permits an international presence on the ground.

By Aghakazim Guliyev